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WORDS IN^SEASON 



FOR THE 



INQUIRER 



AND THE 



INQUIRY MEETING. 
/ 



Ck Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." — 
Isa. i : 18. 

" Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are 
covered." — Rom. 4 : 7. 



" Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth 
not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." — 2 Tim. 2,* 15. 















New York: 
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 

770 BROADWAY, COR. 9th ST. 









Copyright, 1876, by 
Anson D. F. Randolph & Co. 




EDWARD O. JENKINS, 

PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER 

20 NORTH WILLIAM ST., N.Y. 



ROBERT RUTTER, 
BINDER, 
84 BEEKMAN STREET, N.Y. 



PREFACE 



This is not a verbatim report of (he several ad- 
dresses, but is mainly a sketch exhibiting their salient 
points, as these could be caught up in notes written 
in the pew, and with an endeavor to preserve as much as 
possible the popular, off-hand style of their expression. 
This report is given in the conviction that some such 
presentation of the handling of the various themes by 
the master workmen, the wise soul-winners in the 
churches, would be of extended usefulness, wherever 
are found any who have a heart to work for Jesus, and 
also as direct counsel to those seeking Christ. 

The circular call issued for the meetings is given 
herewith to make this little volume an historical 
memento of the spiritual preparation for the work of 
Mr. Moody and Mr. Sankey in New York City. 

Jos. H. Bradley. 

Lebanon Chapel oj the N. Y. City Mission. 

January, 1S76. 



[CIRCULAR.] 

OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, 

HIPPODROME BUILDING, 
N. W. cor. of Twenty-sixth Street and Fourth Avenue. 

New York, December 30, 1875. 
Dear Brother: 

The Advisory Committee has recommended that a series 
of meetings be held, to aid those who are to give instruc- 
tion and counsel in the Inquiry-rooms, in making special 
preparation for their important duties. 

The list of speakers and subjects will be found inclosed. 
The exercises will take place in the Reformed Church 
(Dr. Ormiston's), corner of Twenty-ninth Street and Fifth 
Avenue, at 7.30 p. m , on the Tuesday and Thursday 
evenings of January. 

Will you kindly invite the members of your church, 
whose names you have sent in, as qualified and willing to 
take part in this work in the Inquiry- rooms, and all others 
who may be interested in the subject ? 

These services, if largely attended, will do much to call 
attention to the object of the proposed meetings to be 
conducted by Mr. Moody and Mr. Sankey, and may pre- 
pare hearts in all the churches for intelligent and effective 
co-operation. 

It may be well to notice that Dr. Tyng (Senior) occupies 
the first evening alone. On each succeeding evening two 
addresses will be delivered. 

Fraternally yours, 

D. Stuart Dodge, 

Chairman of Inquiry-Room Committee. 



G O NT E N T S 



Preface. 3 

Circular Call 4 

Preparation for the Work in Inquiry 

Meetings. ...... 7 

REV. STEPHEN H. TYNG, SR., D.D. 

"Must I Repent First?" ... 17 

REV. WILLIAM ORMISTON, D D. 

"My Sins are Too Great." ... 24 

REV. ROBERT RUSSELL BOOTH, U.D. 

"What is it to Come to Christ?" . . 3 * 

REV. JOHN HALL, D.D. 

"What is Saving Faith?" . . . 36 

REV. WILLIAM M. TAYLOR, D.D. 

"One Thing Thou Lackest." . . 41 

RZV. THOMAS ARMITAGE, D.D. 



vi. CONTENTS. 

A Whole Heart or None. ... 46 

REV. STEPHEN H. TYNG, JR., D.D. 

"I Want to be Better Before Coming." 56 

REV. GEORGE H. HEPWORTH. 

Skeptical Difficulties. . . . .64 

REV. WILLIAM J. TUCKER, D.D. 

"Waiting for the Spirit." ... 71 

REV. JAMES M. KING. 

"I Have No Feeling." .... 82 

REV. THOMAS S. HASTINGS, D.D. 

Scriptural Evidences of Conversion. . 93 

REV. ALBERT D. VAIL, D.D. 

"What Good Works Can I Do?" . no 

REV. THOMAS D. ANDERSON, D.D. 

Importance of Church-Membership. . 121 

REV. HOWARD CROSBY, D.D. 

Motive Power of the Christian Life. . 131 

REV. R. S. MACARTHUR. 



WORDS IN SEASON. 



PREPARATION FOR THE WORK IN 
INQUIRY MEETINGS. 

Rev. S. H. TYNG, Sr., D.D. 

They v^ho desire a preparation for useful- 
ness in inquiry meetings, have need to feel 
that the work will go on by the might of the 
Lord, as His own doing among* us. Therefore 
every detail in the matter of preparation is 
essentially worthy of our earnest attention, 
and the excellence of every step of that prepa- 
ration is of vital importance ; we should con- 
sider this ministry as appointed for the nursery 
of the babes in Christ Jesus. 

I wish it understood that I emphatically in- 
dorse the work of Moody and Sankey, believ- 
ing them to be valued instruments of the 
Lord, engaged in building up the kingdom 
of Christ. We are here to-night to assist 
in carrying out their designs. A long experi- 

(7) 



8 ll'OKDS IJV SEASON. 

ence makes me esteem the work of these men 
as that of two servants of the Lord, specially 
raised up, and called as embassadors, as were 
Elijah and John the Baptist of old ; and my 
desire and prayer is, that they may be com- 
pletely sustained in doing that for which they 
are peculiarly qualified. There are some men 
who can do, and others who only are willing 
to do ; these men are both canning and willing 
men, desiring thoroughly to serve God, and I 
have an anticipation of grand results following 
their labors. 

The first grand, requisite for success in the 
inquiry meeting, is that we must heartily be- 
lieve in the reality of this work, and our gath- 
ering to-night is an expression of our personal 
sense of its reality, and of our desire to be 
closely connected with the work, in the pros- 
pect and sure hope of a great result. 

Two classes of persons are particularly 
interested in these meetings : ist, the new-born 
beings; and 2d, the class of faithful friends to 
sustain and encourage these new-born children 
of God. 

The special elements of a wise preparation 
may be included in three general heads. 



PREPARA TION FOR IXQUIR Y MEE TINGS. g 

I. What are the persons with whom the work 
is to be done? II. What is the aim and mat- 
ter of the guidance to be given? III. Who 
shall give this aim and guidance — what are 
the workers to be ? 

I. What are the persons before us ? Inquirers. 
A divine description is afforded, Jeremiah 50: 
4, 5 : " In those days, and in that time, saith 
the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, 
they and the children of Judah together, going 
and weeping; they shall go, and seek the 
Lord their God. They shall ask the way to 
Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, 
Come and let us join our selves to the Lord in 
a perpetual covenant that shall not be for- 
gotten." Here is a perfect description — of 
persons deeply impressed, entertaining an 
active purpose (going and seeking) in humble- 
ness of heart (seeking guidance to Zion with 
faces thitherward), determined to belong to 
their redeeming Lord — to be His in perpetual 
covenant. Here the whole class of inquirers 
is set before us. Under the gospel dispensa- 
tion another divine description has been given, 
as in the caze of the Philippian jailor, and also 
in the cry of those awakened on the day of 



IO WORDS IN SEASON. 

Pentecost, 4< Men and brethren, what shall we 
do to be saved?" A picture of souls pre- 
sented, really, directly aroused from the. 
natural sleep and carelessness of the natural 
state of the human heart, to a sense of respon- 
siblity and danger, a condition of ruin, and 
moved by a power impelling them onward, 
and which they cannot resist. 

We may be assured that the means to effectu- 
ally rescue the awakened is always provided 
by the God of all grace — grace never leaves 
any part of its work unfinished, or not fully 
sustained. The course of guidance is fully 
laid out. 

But we need to be aware that every pro- 
fessed desire to find Jesus is not always of 
God. Of this we are warned in the words, 
" Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the 
spirits whether they are of God." (i Jno. 4: 1.) 
There may come before you some who are 
deceitful : of such Jeremiah had experience, 
and having been deceived by them, he rebuked 
them, saying (Chap. 42 : 20), " Ye dissembled 
in your hearts when ye sent me unto the Lord 
your God, saying pray for us," etc. Such 
experiences are not infrequent. 



PREPARA TION FOR INQUIR Y MEETINGS, \ \ 

ist. What constitutes a real inquirer? It 
is one awakened and moved by the Spirit of 
the living God. With such an one the inter- 
est is of an abiding nature, that lasts, and is 
not a temporary impression ; a deep feeling of 
need of salvation is exercised ; such an one 
is assured that something must be done, and 
no wheedling of the world without can take 
away the feeling; the man recognizes himself 
in danger, and confesses to himself, " I am in a 
great crisis ! " and his questions instead of being 
merely formal, come from his own individual, 
deep, spontaneous experience. The man's 
fervid impression is that his present condition 
is ruinous, and his anxious desire is " how to 
get out of it." Therefore search the reality 
and earnestness of the spirit with which you 
have to deal. Many before you may not be 
entirely insincere, but only superficially im- 
pressed, as is common in times of revival. 
Assure yourselves whether influence exhibited 
is of God or of man ; whether of the Holy 
Spirit, or mere excitement and sympathetic. 
Much experience and wisdom is needed for 
successful work in the inquiry meeting. 

2d. The Holy Spirit's work is marked by 



12 • WORDS IN SEASON, 

deep conviction of personal guilt. A panorama 
of sin moves before the conscience, and the 
truth is recognized that there remains no good- 
ness in the man. He is constrained to look 
in upon his secret heart, and back on a wasted 
life ; he is a hideous object to his own view, 
and abhors himself in dust and ashes ; he finds 
no excuse, nor defence, and judges himself 
vile; the tone of his expressions is, u I have 
sinned, and what shall I do? v He has a con- 
sciousness not only of sin, but also of guilt, 
and that he is under condemnation which is 
well deserved, a present condemnation, and 
that he must have an actual and absolute sal- 
vation, or be forever lost. The exact features 
of these convictions will be necessarily char- 
acterized by each individual's personal pecu- 
liarities, yet the marks of them will always be 
present in some shape, and it is yours to seek 
and expect to find these feelings. 

3d. The marks of the genuine work of grace 
are indicated by the scripture, ." When He, the 
Spirit of Truth, is come, He will convince the 
world of sin, because they believe not in me. 7 ' 
Jesus so tells what objectively is the aim of 
the truth. No conviction of the sin of reject- 



PREPARATION FOR INQUIRY MEETINGS. 13 

ing Jesus comes but by the Holy Ghost. ("The 
grand morality of the gospel is love to Jesus, 
and its reverse is the great sin.") We want 
to bring the inquirer face to* face with this 
sin. You will find the sense of this sin over- 
whelmingly great in a truly awakened soul. 

4th. The real inquirer will exhibit a longing 
for salvation, and a sense that he can never 
bear sin's penalty; and this is his cry: "Is 
there any salvation for such as I — will God 
save, forgive such a wretch !" His feelings 
will be like those of one lost in the desert, or 
alone upon a wreck in mid-ocean, or at the 
window of a burning building — so he will ask, 
"■ How can I be converted ?" 

These are not extreme cases, but normal 
examples of the Holy Spirit's work, drawn 
from my long experience of hundreds of 
cases. 

II. What is to be your personal aim in this 
guiding ministry ? What are you to do with 
these persons? What do you desire to do 
with, accomplish with, these acute, discrimi- 
nating inquirers? Your ultimate, final purpose 
is to bring them to Christ, for a full, perfect 
salvation by a present, living union with Him. 



H 



WORDS IN SEASON. 



You are not to be deceived, satisfied by the 
present views and convictions of those before 
you ; you are not to take conviction of sin for 
the change of heart itself; for they may go 
clown to death under only conviction, unwill- 
ing to accept the gospel offer, to submit them- 
selves to the demand of obedience ; especially 
may this be so with men of intelligence, men 
of business — they may go on for years in this 
condition. An inquiring mind is still an un- 
believing mind, unsaved. 

When you are asked, "What shall I do?" 
answer, " Believe !" The act of faith requires 
no delay, no time for consideration ; the oper- 
ation is not constituted of parts, but is one 
and indivisible, a single, instantaneous work. 
Every one is a believer or unbeliever; is in 
Christ or out of Christ. Mere awakening 
does not alter the condition ; delay is contin- 
ued disobedience and unbelief. You are not 
to stop to argue points, leave that to Christ ; 
but you are kindly to remove obstacles out of 
the way, and lead the soul to an immediate 
acceptance of Christ. Do this as the Spirit 
gives you utterance. 

You are to lead these souls to feelings of 



PREPARA TION FOR INQ UIR Y MEE TINGS. \ 5 

godly sorrow, unselfish sorrow for the rejec- 
tion of a long and patiently waiting Saviour, 
as He who has long stood without, His locks 
wet with the drops of the night while He has 
waited for them ; a sorrow for the indignities 
laid on Jesus. Show them the love of a Sav- 
iour's heart, the fulness of His forgiveness, the 
sweetness of a Saviour's fellowship, till they 
come to the Prodigal's sensibility : u I am no 
more worthy to be called thy son." The 
Spirit will work with you to bring them to 
godly sorrow. 

Show to them the completeness of the atone- 
ment, the fulness of the gracious pardon, wash- 
ing their deep crimson white as snow. They 
are to receive the truth presented to them as 
the teaching of God, with no objections ; as 
divine revelation ; to adopt the salvation as 
theirs, and believe that they are as assured of 
pardon and justification as though they had 
never sinned. Tell them of Christ's perfect 
obedience for them, who by His righteousness 
" justifies many," that even the chief of sinners 
may be completely justified by faith in the 
blood; tell them to receive the Saviour as 
their Saviour, to trust to and in Him, as their 



1 6 WORDS IN SEASON. 

shelter, tabernacle, everlasting habitation, as 
the joy of their heart. 

Urge them to an immediate, full, affectionate 
consecration of themselves to Christ, who has 
assumed their sin and condemnation, and to 
give themselves to Him a living sacrifice, His 
property, to His service, control, as the thank- 
offering of souls redeemed and living ever in 
Him. 

[The lapse of time did not permit Dr. Tyng to dwell 
upon two other points, which he barely stated, viz. : The 
MOTIVES WHICH should control those who go into the 
inquiry-room, and The PECULIAR MODES by which the 
Lord sustains workers^ 



rt MUST I REPENT FIRST?" 
Rev. WILLIAM ORMISTON, D.D. 

The duty of conversing with those who are 
under deep concern about their souls is alike 
delicate and difficult, and should be performed 
always under a due sense of its solemn impor- 
tance. with a true and tender sympathy with the 
inquirer, with unfaltering faith in the gospel, 
and in a spirit of prayerful dependence on the 
Holy Spirit, The first qualification for this 
work is a genuine personal experience of the 
truth and power of the gospel ; to this should 
be added a competent knowledge of the Scrip- 
tures, and some wisdom and tact in applying 
them. 

The difficulties to be removed,, the objec- 
tions to be answered, and the states of mind to 
be dealt with, are as varied as the circum- 
stances of the individuals who seek for coun- 
sel. 

In many cases you will find a disposition not 
unlike that of the young man who came to Jesus 
anxiously asking, u What shall I do to inherit 
eternal life ? '' They desire to do something 

(i7) 



IS WORDS IN SEA SOX. 

to be better in some way, to commend them- 
selves to the mercy of God. 

Whatever be the peculiar difficulty in the 
mind of the inquirer, no direction should ever 
be given which contemplates his remaining 
another hour in unbelief. An immediate 
change is necessary — a change of mind and 
heart toward God. Hence the exhortation 
to Repent, as the immediate duty of every 
sinner, is so frequently and earnestly urged in 
Scripture. John the Baptist, in trumpet tones 
preached repentance to the multitudes by the 
banks of the Jordan. The great Teacher 
Himself came into Galilee preaching, saying, 
" Repent ye and believe the gospel." When 
Jesus sent out the twelve, they went forth 
preaching that men should repent ; and in His 
last commission to His apostles, He declares 
that repentance and remission of sins should 
be preached in His name among all nations. 
Peter in Jerusalem, Paul in Athens and in 
Ephesus, proclaimed the same truth, that God 
commandeth all men everywhere to repent, 
and that Jesus is exalted a Prince and a Saviour 
to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness 
of sins. (Math. 3:219:13; Mk. 1 : 1 5 ; 6 : 12. 



" M UST I RE TEXT FIRST T i g 

Luke 24: 47. Acts 2 : 38 ; 3 : 19; 17: 30 ; 20: 21 ; 

When tb 2 question is asked, however, Must 
I repent first? the difficult)' lies in the word 
first, implying something- necessary to be done 
before receiving Christ. It were worse than 
useless to enter into any metaphysical discus- 
sion, as to the order of experience, or the 
states of mind through which a sinner passes 
in becoming a child of God, or to attempt to 
settle the priority of repentance and faith, or 
how the divine and human co-operate in the 
work of salvation. Better far to show what 
true repentance is, and enforce the obligation 
which rests on all immediately to repent. 
Doubtless every experienced Christian, who 
is able to discriminate in spiritual things, wilt 
see that the quickening b} r the Spirit precedes 
every right act of the sinner, and that some 
faith in the testimony of God concerning the 
evil and demerit of sin, and His readiness to 
pardon it, precedes repentance, otherwise the 
sinner would not feel the need of repentance, 
or have sufficient encouragement to repent; 
yet in the consciousness of the penitent, a 
deep sense of the guilt of sin, and bitter griet 



20 WORDS /AT SEASOiW 

on account of it, may be felt ere he believes 
in Jesus Christ for justification before God. 

Evangelical repentance as inculcated in the 
Word, implies a turning from sin unto God 
through faith in His Son. Repentance and 
faith are inseparable in every truly awakened 
soul; we repent only when we believe, and 
we are conscious that we believe only when 
we repent. One has aptly said, " Repentance 
is the act of a believer, faith is the act of a 
penitent." Faith is turning to Christ, but in 
turning to Christ we turn from sin. The eye 
of the soul looking on our sins is repentance ; 
looking on Christ is faith. 

Never hesitate to urge a sinner to repent, 
as if you were asking him to do something 
before coming to Christ ; for true repentance 
is just coming to Christ, and coming to Christ 
is one aspect of true repentance. 

Be careful to distinguish between true re- 
pentance and that which is often mistaken for 
it, and which simply results from the work- 
ings of the natural conscience. There may 
be a sense of guilt, a feeling of remorse, and 
even a sorrowful confession of sin, and yet no 
real penitence. Pharaoh, Achan, Saul, and 



« MUST I REPEAT FIRST P 2 I 

Judas, each said, " I have sinned.** Were 
mere regret and remorse, repentance, peni- 
tents were numerous indeed. A man's con- 
science may remonstrate, and, in view of the 
consequences of his sin, either felt or feared, 
he may grieve bitterly over his folly, yet there 
may be no turning to God, no apprehension 
of mercy, and only a repentance that needeth 
to be repented of. Repentance toward God 
is indispensable and necessary, yet it is by no 
means meritorious. 

Some may say, I cannot repent, unless 
God grants me repentance. True, it is the 
gift of our exalted Redeemer, but it is not 
more distinctly stated as a gracious gift, than 
as a commanded duty. It is God's gift,. yet 
none the less man's act. In all other de- 
partments of the divine operation, wherever 
man is a co-worker with God the same diffi- 
culty arises and the same principle holds. 
We truly say God gives a bountiful harvest, 
yet is it also the result of human industry. 
The hand of the diligent maketh rich, yet 
prosperity is of the Lord. So while we work 
out our salvation, God worketh in us both to 
will and to do. A skillful workman in spirit- 



22 IVOR OS IN SEA SOX. ' 

vial things states the truth very aptly. He 
says: "In spiritual operations God has His 
work and we have ours ; as we cannot do 
God's work, He will not do ours ; though we 
cannot do God's work we may pray to Him 
in reference to it ; and though God will not 
do our work for us, we may, and must ask 
Him for grace to enable us to do it."* God 
gives repentance, but it is the sinner who re- 
pents. The necessity of divine agency does 
not, and cannot, absolve from human responsi- 
bility. This may be fitly illustrated by the 
case of the man with the withered hand, or 
that of the impotent man at the pool of Bethes- 
da, or that of the lame man at the gate called 
Beautiful (Mark 3:5; John 5:8; Acts 3 : 7). 
When the strength, in either case, was im- 
parted we cannot tell, but the command was 
given and the power went with it, 3nd in 
obedience, healing was obtained and mani- 
fested. So with the command to repent and 
believe, the grace is given. If we seek salva- 
tion, we must accept it on God's terms as a 
free gift. We must do what God enjoins, if 
we would enjoy what He promises. If the 
question is pressed, " Must I repent first?'' 



" MUST I REP EXT FIRST 7" 2X 

the right answer is, There is no first about the 
matter. Repent at once, and believe in Jesus. 
God summons you to repent; let your com- 
pliance be prompt and hearty. Wait not for 
the Spirit; He is with }'Ou now. ■ 

If any come to you, already burdened with 
a sense of sin, -ready to sink into despair, 
point such at once to the Lamb of God who 
taketh away the sin of the world, and speak 
to them of the greatness of His love, the free- 
ness of His grace, and the fullness of His sal- 
vation. Be very tender with the broken- 
hearted, and speak to them of the great Heal- 
er. Brethren, be wise in winning souls, and 
God give you many as a crown of rejoicing, 



"MY SINS ARE TOO GREAT." 
Rev. ROBT. RUSSELL BOOTH, D.D. 

It is hardly possible for us to exaggerate 
the importance of suitable instruction to an 
inquirer, whatever may be the difficulties un- 
der w-hich he is laboring. The magnitude of 
the interests which are at stake, the manifold 
temptations which beset him, and the subtle 
and intricate exercises of an anxious heart, all 
combine to require in him who undertakes 
such a work, a discretion and knowledge 
which shall be at least equal to his zeal. 
It was Dr. Nettleton's rule to say as little as 
possible to those who came to him for di- 
rection, beyond what he presented in the 
simple language of Scripture. It is very 
easy for us to make serious mistakes in under- 
taking this work > and thereby to turn away 
the eye which ought to be taught to look di- 
rectly to the Lamb of God 9 who taketh away 
the sin of the world. We shall in some de- 
gree do this* whenever we attempt to make 
our own thoughts, ideas, experiences, or even 
theological views the standard of spiritual at- 

(24) 



MY SINS ARE TOO GREAT: 



25 



tainments in others. If, like Christ, we wish 
to speak u with authority/' and with persua- 
sion, we must make our counsel the echo of 
some "Thus saith the Lord." And to secure 
proper adaptation in this, it would be well for 
us to keep in mind that striking illustration of 
ejaculatory prayer which is presented in the 
interview of Nehemiah with King Artaxerxes : 
"For what dost thou make request ?" was the 
question. " So I prayed unto the God of 
Heaven, and I said unto the King/' Now, in 
like cases, He who has promised to be wisdom 
and utterance to His disciples in all times of 
need, will aid us if we thus cast ourselves up- 
on Him, asking Him to direct us as to the use 
of the right word in the right spirit. Then 
all that we say will be as " apples of gold in 
pictures of silver," and will be " profitable to 
direct." None but our Master can give us the 
wjsdom we need in such cases. He that win- 
neth souls must be wise by means of this 
dependence on Him. 

The difficulty which is expressed in the 
phrase, " My sins are too great" is one which 
we are likely to meet very frequently. Some- 
times it is carelessly or even flippantly utter- 



26 WORDS IA T SEASON. 

ed, but in most instances it is spoken with a 
deep and sad sense of its meaning. Perhaps I 
shall serve you best by describing the person- 
al experience out of which it proceeds, and 
then by pointing out the way in which it may 
be met, so that out of a due sense of its sin, the 
soul may see Jesus as its sin-bearer and refuge. 
•As to the cause of this feeling, we need to 
realize that it is grounded in a deep and terri- 
ble reality. This is presented to us in Romans 
7:9: " For I was alive without the Law once, 
but when the commandment came, sin revived, 
and I died." The natural condition of the sin- 
ner is one of carelessness in his sin. "Alive 
without the Law;" conscious of his short- 
comings; aw r are of his peril, and yet indiffer- 
ent to both his guilt and his danger. But when- 
ever the Law of God is applied to him b} r the 
Spirit, so that he realizes its claims and his own 
disobedience, the reaction is solemn, over- 
whelming, and often terrible. The sinner then 
sees himself a responsible being under the con- 
demnation of a just and heart-searching God. 
Sinai's thunderings and lightnings are around 
him, and he knows not where to go for a 
refuge. He realizes sin for the first time in 



"MY SIXS ARE TOO GREAT? 2 J 

his life, and he is dismayed. It is no wonder that 
in such conditions men often feel that their 
sins are " too great" for God's mercy. Simon 
Peter gave utterance to this feeling when he 
first came in contact with Christ (Luke 5 : 8), 
" Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, oh, 
Lord !" Such, too, was the condition of Paul 
in those days in Damascus, when u he was 
three days without sight, and did neither eat 
nor drink." (i\cts 9: 9-18.) Such, too, were 
those pentecostal experiences when multitudes 
were " pricked in their hearts," and cried out 
in alarm, " Men and brethren, what shall we 
do ?'' (Acts 2 : 37.) It was a permanent char- 
acteristic of the New England revivals that 
they were attended by this deep conviction of 
sin ; and while it is not a feeling which should 
be prolonged or augmented, I most seriously 
insist that it is not to be carelessly set aside as 
if it had no significance, but it should rather 
be regarded as the direct work of the Spirit of 
God in the heart. Striking out one single 
word from the sentence, the word "too" — 
" too great" — it expresses precisely the feeling 
which one must have, in order to possess any 
proper apprehension of Christ ; and it is, more- 



28 WORDS IN SEASON. 

over, a feeling which will never leave him un- 
til grace is perfected in glory. We find this 
experience in Paul even at the close of his 
life. " Sinners, of whom I am chief." ( I. Tim. 
1:15.) Therefore, I conclude on this point by 
the earnest suggestion, that you should say 
nothing whatever to diminish the reality of 
this sense of sin, for it is the true preparation 
for a sense of the value of Christ as a Saviour 
of sinners. Only let it not be exaggerated to 
proportions which will induce anyone to des- 
pair of the grace of God freely offered to all 
who desire it. 

In order to set this matter right in the con- 
sciousness of the inquirer, you must therefore 
be able to show him how sin — such sin as his — • 
whatever it may be, is cancelled and pardoned 
in the salvation of Christ. 

1st. As already intimated, let the convic- 
tion, " My sins are great," stand in the mind 
just as the Spirit of God has impressed it. 
You cannot do much to relieve it by any com- 
forts of your devising. It is a reality which 
one ought to ponder. It is cause for tribula- 
tion and anguish. The sinner has need to feel 
that his sins are great. 



u MY SINS ARE TOO GREAT." 2o 

2d. At the same time, try to make use of that 
sense of sin, as a motive to an instant surrender 
of soul to God. Feeling it to be right, let the 
convicted soul say, " I will arise, and go to my 
Father." " If I have done iniquity, I will do 
so no more." Whatever be the prospect or 
hope of acceptance, whatever be the attitude 
of God towards the sinner, surely it is his 
duty to give up his rebellion at once, and 
break off his iniquities by turning unto the 
Lord. 

The language of Queen Esther, when she 
resolved to intercede for her people, expresses 
this purpose: "And so will I go in unto the 
king, which is not according to the Law, and 
if I perish, I perish." (Esther 4: 16,) 

" I can but perish if I go, 
I am resolved to try. 
For if I stay away, I know 
I must forever die." 

- 3d. In connection with this demand for submis- 
sion to God, do not fail to point always to the 
Lord Jesus Christ, who " came into the world 
to save sinners." Explain His mission, His re- 
lation to the broken Law, His work of expia- 



30 WORDS IN SEA SO.V. 

tion on the cross. Repeat His precious invita- 
tions, present Him as the Saviour and the 
Friend of sinners. Bring into the fore- 
ground such cases as those of Bartimeus, 
Zacheus, the Magdalen, the dying thief, Saul 
of Tarsus. Enforce the grand assurance, 
" Therefore being justified by faith, we have 
peace with God through our Lord Jesus 
Christ." (Romans 5 : 1.) And when the con- 
victed and submissive soul is thus brought 
face to face with Christ, you may be sure that 
Christ will do for him His work of grace, ac- 
cording to His word. u Him that cometh 
unto me I will in no wise cast out." (John 

6-37-) 



"WHAT IS IT TO COME TO CHRIST?" 
Rev. JOHN HALL, D.D. % 

As guides to those seeking the truth we 
are under obligation to learn the best methods 
of stating the truth. And the truth we are to 
give is not something involved, intricate, some- 
thing to be learned by long study. The best 
method by far is not to tell of the way, but 
tell of Christ, and so keep the substance of the 
whole matter before the souls of inquirers. 

The "come" suggests something local, yet 
not a bodily, but mental progress, as when we 
use the expression, " coming to oneself/' or, 
of " coming to an opinion," as purely a pro- 
cess of mind or spirit. It is to be assumed 
that in some sense they who shall be before 
us, already know of Christ, as they to whom 
John the Baptist said, " Behold the Lamb of 
God," meaning something more than the 
bodily form of Jesus. And when we get 
others to look at the person, and they see 
Christ, we find they have also come to the 
faith, have done more than merely look with 
the eyes. When one says to he cashier of 
a bank, u I have come to you with my money, " 

(so 



32 WORDS IN SEASON 

we understand him to mean, that he intrusts 
his money. So men may have trusted in 
their Church, trusted in their own righteous- 
ness, which is but as filthy rags before God ; 
the same idea of full confidence in the object 
of trust, is meant in trusting in Christ; and 
when we come to Christ, we say, " I trust all 
to Thee." 

We are not to confound the figure with 
the truth which lies under it. We are not to 
take the sentiment, however strong, stirred 
by looking at the crucifixion, for the actual 
looking to Christ. We are looking to Christ 
when the mind is filled with scriptural ideas 
of Him, so that we take Him as the true and 
only Saviour. 

The difficulty with some persons is, that 
they cannot see Christ as they do see the 
bank. This difficulty does not touch the 
question of the being of Christ. If there 
were no belief of Christ, then these souls 
would have none of the fears which distress 
them, but we show them their belief, appeal- 
ing to their strong consciousness, by saying, 
"But you do fear; now fully believe the evi- 
dent fact, an 1 be at peace.'* 



" WHAT IS IT TO COME TO CHRIST?" 33 

The practical error from which we need to 
warn the inquirer, is that coming to Christ 
is getting up an impetuous feeling. Faith in 
Christ is not a process of forcing oneself up 
to a certain pitch of feeling and excitement, 
and then having accomplished that, to be 
done with the whole business ever after; no 
more than marriage is a thing to have done, 
and then to be done with it. Coming to 
Christ is coming into loving,' eternal union 
with the "chiefest among ten thousand, '' (Cant. 
5 : 10), and this knowledge is necessary to the 
right coming. 

Coming to Christ is done by the same pro- 
cess of mind as we exercise when we invest 
money by the advice of a wise financier; so 
the sinner seeks and receives testimony of the 
advantages of trusting all to the Son of God, 
of putting soul and body, for time and eternity ? 
into His hands; and the value of the testi- 
mony which gives confidence in this spiritual 
deposit or investment will increase more 
and more to his apprehension ; and it will 
become more and more evident to himself that 
he has come to Christ. 

Let the advice of " coming" be not made 



34 



WORDS IN SEASON. 



so much of as to hide Christ. Carry the sinner 
to the feet of the Saviour, tell him he is 
under the power of evil, and that King Im- 
manuel is the only One who can grapple 
with that power and break the yoke of bond- 
age, rescue him, and give him the children's 
liberty. Tell him that coming is a life-long pro- 
cess, and the whole refrain of Christian life 
is, "I need Thee every hour, most gracious 
Saviour." 

A danger attends the revival season and 
its agencies, under which, by mere emotional 
effects, persons believe they have come to 
Christ, and then fall away, and back into 
their old condition, when the power invok- 
ing the feeling is gone. Wherefore we should 
be impressed with the responsibility of making 
plain the fact that "coming" is a daily work, 
and that we have need of coming to Christ, 
as our daily and constant wants, fears, and 
hopes arise. Try to keep this continually 
before the minds of those to whom you pre- 
sent Christ, that this truth may solidify and 
crystalize into the abiding substance of a 
godly life. 

When any one shall say to you, " I do 



" WHAT IS IT TO COME TO CHRIST?" 35 

not feel that I have come to Christ/' turn 
their thoughts away from such introspec- 
tion, and turn them again at once to Christ ; 
do not go into the science of optics, but 
give the light, which will enforce a con" 
ciousness of spiritual seeing. 

If any shall say, ''It is so hard to come/' show 
such that the Holy Spirit is given to enable 
men to come to Christ. Inquirers are given 
to looking within themselves, to watching for 
some miraculous testimony, experience ot 
halcyon peace, and are not easily satisfied 
without it. But bring them to the fact 
that they must surrender themselves just as 
they are entirely to Christ ; not. to dwell upon 
the way of doing it, but to be sure only that 
they do the needful thing, make the surren- 
der, wholly, heartily, and for ever, to live and 
be ever to the praise and glory of God. 






"WHAT IS SAVING FAITH?" 
WM. M. TAYLOR, D.D. 

"Faith," according to the apostle, "is the 
evidence of things not seen, the substance of 
things hoped for." It has to do, therefore, 
with things which are beyond the sphere of 
our own knowledge or observation, and it 
takes them to be real and substantial. But on 
what ground ? The answer is, on that of the 
testimony of God regarding them. In its 
most general sense, faith is the belief of a testi- 
mony. In its Biblical sense, faith is the belief 
of that which the Bible contains, on the ground 
of confidence in God, whose testimony the 
Bible is. In its Christian sense, faith is only 
a particular instance of that Biblical faith. 
This Word of God tells us who Christ is, and 
assures us that He has done all that is re- 
quired to secure our salvation, so that we 
need now only to depend upon Him ; and we 
believe all that because God says it, and de- 
pend on Christ accordingly, and that is saving 
faith. 

(36) 



" WHATJS SA VING FAITH?* .37 

There are not two ways of believing. To 
believe always expresses the same precise act 
of the soul, which is the acceptance as true on 
the testimony of another of something- which 
is beyond the reach of my observation or dis- 
covery. But in ordinary cases we believe a 
fellow-man because of what another man has 
said. In this case we believe in Jesus because 
of the testimony which God has given to Him. 

Is, then, faith a mere intellectual act? The 
answer is, that will depend on the nature of 
the truth believed. If it is an abstract prop- 
osition, then my faith in it will affect only the 
intellectual part of my nature ; but if it be 
something that affects me personally, and be 
seen and believed bv me so to do, then it is 
impossible that my faith should not go down 
into the depths of my being and pervade my 
soul. Whenever, therefore, a faith which pro- 
fesses to believe the Bible is a merely specu- 
lative thing, you may be sure that the full 
truth is not believed. If a man say he be- 
lieves the Bible and continues in sin, then the 
Bible in his view must be a very different 
book from what it really is, and that amounts 
to saying that he is not really believing the 



38 WORDS IN SEA SOX. 

Bible. It comes then just to this, that pro- 
vided we believe the right thing, we need not 
concern ourselves about our manner of be- 
lieving it, for as one has admirably put it, " the 
true belief is the belief of the truth," and in 
the line of his statement we may add that 
saving faith is faith in Christ. 

Faith differs from sight. Both, indeed, are 
the belief of a testimony ; but sight is the be- 
lief of the testimony of my own senses, faith is 
belief in the testimony of another, and in its Bib- 
lical sense confidence in the testimony of God. 

It differs also from reason, which may be 
called the sight of the mind. If we follow 
reason alone, we are trusting simply to our 
own faculties, but faith is confidence in God. 
Yet faith is not irrational. The province of 
reason is to examine into the evidence for the 
divine authority of the Scriptures, and if that 
be found conclusive, it hands the book over 
to be held by faith. Again, the province of 
reason is to find out the meaning of revelation, 
for God speaks to man as an intelligent being ; 
but when the meaning is discovered, reason 
hands it over for the acceptance of faith. It 
matters not, though some of the things re- 



« 1VIIA T IS SA VING FAITH T 39 

vealed may be above our comprehension ; if 
we are only satisfied that they are attested by 
God, reason bids us receive them ; even as 
Martha was prepared to receive anything 
which the Master said, though she was evi- 
dently quite at a loss to understand what He 
meant when He said, " I am the Resurrection 
and the Life/' 

The influence of faith is seen in the fact that 
it relieves the mind from all perplexity or 
doubt, and the heart from all anxiety, as to 
unseen and eternal things. It is, as one has 
said, " the repose of the intellect and the re- 
pose of the affections." It believes God's 
word and "stays quiet." God has testified 
that the blood of Jesus Christ His Son " cieans- 
eth from all sin." The sinner believes that, 
and as a consequence looks for salvation only 
through the atoning death of Christ. If he 
has been seeking- salvation in other ways he 
gives over all such attempts and rerts in 
Christ. There are thus just two steps in the 
process— the belief in the Father's testimony 
regarding Christ, and the resting quietly in 
Christ, as the result of believing God's testi- 
mouy. This is the whole thing. This is 



4 o WORDS IN SEASON. 

saving faith, whereof it is written, " He tha* 
hath received his testimony hath set to his 
seal that God is true." 

Faith also promotes holiness. Indeed, faith 
in operation, as the habit of the soul, is just 
another way of describing holiness; and when 
a man shall understand what God has re- 
vealed, shall implicitly believe it, and con- 
stantly practice it, that will be Christian holi- 
ness. This is the goal of the Christian race — 
towards which we must run with persever- 
ance incited by the great cloud of witnesses 
who, though tempted like us, are now triumph- 
ant, and give the secret of their conquest to 
us in these words : " This was the victory that 
overcame the world, even our faith." 



"ONE THING THOU LACKEST." 

Rev. THOMAS ARMITAGE, D.D. 

It were well to compare the inspired narra- 
tives from which we derive our theme, " One 
thing thou lackest," as they are found in Matt. 
19: 16-30, Mark 10 : 17-31, Luke 18; 18-30. We 
have here a specific case of inquiry from the 
Scriptures, of one who takes high rank for 
purity of character, ingenuousness, frankness, 
eagerly running to learn the way of eternal 
life, and as though he were willing to do what- 
soever he was told by Jesus to do. His expres- 
sion showed a great measure of self-satisfaction, 
which Jesus proceeds to try, by first instanc- 
ing the commandments of the second table, 
the inferior requirements of righteousness — 
not the higher standard — and the man asks for 
more, with assured readiness to do all ; then 
the crucial test is applied, the test of love to 
his neighbor, as an expression of perfectness — 
u Give all to the poor and follow me " (the whole 
law), and Jesus accompanies the demand with 
the full assurance of blessing — compliance 
with the man's desire — if he shall fulfil the 
demand. This proposal goes like a sword's 

(41) 



42 WORDS IN SEA SOX. 

point to the heart, ambition and desire lapsed 
in a moment; it was certainly a severe test, 
but one which the man brought on himself. 
The Lord but tried him on his own chosen 
ground, and laying bare his heart, showed him 
that he was not willing to do as much as he 
imagined he had already done, or professed him- 
self able to do. This man saw himself as never 
before. With all his pretences his heart was 
hard, and money the master of his manhood. 
The test was fearfully effectual, and the man 
saw how weak — hopelessly so — he was to keep 
the commandments. An idol was found en- 
shrined in his heart, showing to the world 
how hard it is for them who love riches to 
enter the kingdom. 1 see no reason why you 
may not meet with just such a case, and there- 
fore it were wise to look at the principles of 
Jesus' conduct here. 

I. Jesus recognized the presence of covet- 
ousness as utterly at variance with the possi- 
bility of salvation. Invest a man with money 
and he will never again be the same man ; for 
it will either refine or deprave him, he may 
become better, or he may become worse. The 
money test will gauge the whole man. Put im- 



"ONE THING THOU LACK EST! 



43 



becility upon a throne of gold, and you cannot 
mistake it for a man ; take honesty and worth 
from a bed of straw, and pile upon them a 
mountain of gold, and you cannot destroy 
their sterling virtues and manhood. It was 
no great thing to ask the man to sell all to 
gain eternal life, and this is the mammon test 
of universal entrance into Christ's kingdom. 
Probe to the core the covetous inquirer with 
whom you may meet, for in such a one there 
will be found no love to Christ. 

II. The money greed is here shown as radi- 
cally opposed to the spirit and practice of the 
gospel. There is no condemnation for the 
mere possession of wealth, which in some cir- 
cumstances is by the blessing of God; but 
greed, the insatiabb hunger for, and absorb- 
ing delight in, riches, is a terrible sin. In Col. 
3 : 5, 6, Paul refers to u coveimisness, which is 
idolatrv : for which thing's sake the wrath of 
God comes on the children of disobedience ;" 
and it is there classed with lewdness, thieving, 
and drunkenness ; with all that dethrones 
God in man's affections, and it gives to money 
the faith and hope which the soul should give 
only to God. So Judas sold his Saviour, soul, 



44 WORDS IN SEA SO, V. 

body, divinity, and mediatorship, for the thirty 
pieces, the price of a slave. And as idolatry 
was the first sin of the Church- in the wilder- 
ness, so, also, as exemplified in Ananias and 
Sapphira, was exhibited as the first recorded 
sin in the new Church. 

III. Greed is the great enemy of the spirit 
and hope of the gospel. Jesus was tried 
in this point like as we are. Few had more 
to do with, or passed more tests in connection 
with money than Jesus. The gold of the 
Magi was poured out at His cradle. Judas 
sold His blood-stained limbs for gold. When 
He laid in the tomb the soldiers took a 
bribe of large money to lie concerning His 
resurrection. Money with its blessing or its 
curse appears at both ends of His life. Money 
is made a test of morality, a test of sensuality 
in the rich fool (Luke 12 : 16), of devotion in 
the widow with her mites, of the purity of 
God's house in the upsetting of the tables of 
the changers, of common humanity and world- 
liness in Dives and Lazarus. From the moun- 
tain-top Satan promised gold to Jesus, among 
the glories of the world, but He trampled the 
bribe under His feet ; by the piece of money 






OXE THING THOU LACKEST." 



45 



His enemies tried to entrap Him into treason- 
able utterance ; so too money tested the Lord's 
piety in the matter of the half-shekel. We 
have every assurance that He sympathizes 
with all who are in like manner tempted, that 
they may be encouraged to carry the weight 
of this trial to Him who will help them to 
bear it. 

In the inquiry-room keep a sharp watch on 
the covetous spirit. Treat it lovingly, yet 
treat it faithfully as did Jesus. Insist on the 
point of yielding all the heart to Christ. 



A WHOLE HEART OR NONE, 

Rev. STEPHEN H. TYNG, Jr., D.D. 

Our topic presupposes the full reception oi 
all the preceding and preparatory instruc- 
tion of this course of addresses. 

If all this be true of the inquirer, then he 
is " born again " through the seed of the Word, 
by the power of the Holy Ghost. He is now 
a partaker of the Divine nature. Having the 
Son, he has life, The office of the inquiry 
worker is now to develop this life into abso- 
lute consecration. He is to feed it on the 
words of Divine truth. He is to free it from 
unfounded and slavish fears. The relations of 
this work are indicated in Philippians 2 : 12, 
13. God has " worked in " the salvation and 
life. The inquirer is now to " work out," to 
manifest that which he has already in its be- 
ginnings received from God. 

This manifestation of the new life of God 
in the soul of man is Christian consecration. 
Its secret and source should be very clearly 
explained to the inquirer. In doing this, I ad- 
vise the use of Galatians 2: 20, 4: 19; 2 
Corinthians 13: 5> emphasizing the fact that 
(46) 



A WHOLE HEART OR NONE. 47 

the Person of Christ is declared to be in him. 
Press this assertion for his acceptance. Show 
him that the alternative is to be a " reprobate," 
His faith must say " yes " to this word of God 
before you can go any farther. Explain that 
the fact and its realization or enjoyment are 
two different things. The one may precede 
the other by a long period. It does so in nat- 
ural life. 

Make the relations of Christian consecra- 
tion equally clear. Conversion is turning from 
somewhat. Consecration is turning towards 
somewhat. The one is the contrast of sin ; 
the other is the opposite of selfishness. Of 
both these actions the indwelling Christ is the 
author. He it is who changes the direction 
of the heart's longing and the life's doings. 
In Isaiah 1 : 16, 17, these two closely connect- 
ed facts are represented under the expressions 
" ceasing to do evil" and " learning to do 
well/ 5 They accurately describe each and 
both. The union of the two in a true Chris- 
tian experience is as complete as the two sides 
of the human face: neither is complete with- 
out the other; neither is not without the 
other ; neither should be less absolute than 



48 



WORDS IN SEASON. 



the other. If a partial consecration is suf- 
ficient, then an incomplete conversion is ade- 
quate. But the new life will brook nothing 
less than a full surrender of sin and submis- 
sion of self to Christ. As the new life is de- 
veloped by its growth in the knowledge of 
Christ, its loathing of sin will be intensified 
and its longings for the Lord's honor and glory 
become more imperative. Therefore your 
office is to press the fulness of Jesus and to in- 
dicate methods by which the quickened life of 
the soul may express itself. 

This assertion of the essential necessity of a 
complete consecration to Christ will seem to. 
the inquirer in opposition to much that pass- 
es current in Christian society and churches. 
How will you brave the difficulty, because the 
inquirer is right? The Church just now is 
in a terribly Laodicean condition. In your 
effort to lead the inquirer to a full consecra- 
tion of himself, you will be withstood by all 
legal forms of teaching, all ceremonialism, and 
all indolence as he has observed and heard of 
them in the Church. This is not your con- 
cern. Keep to the text of God's Word and 
you are safe. If you are consciously directed 



_ 



A WHOLE HEART OR NONE. 40 

to it, 3^011 can press these passages upon him 
with no mean emphasis. Let him not shirk 
behind others. Keep him out in the light. 

Equally at war with this view of consecra- 
tion are the teachings of many who hold to 
the so-called " higher Christian life." There 
is no high, higher, nor highest Christian life. 
The growth of the soul is only in the apprehen- 
sion of Christ and its corresponding submission 
to Him. But at all stages in its development, 
consecration must be complete so far as the 
inquirer knows himself. This is the instinct 
of all believers, and not the privilege of the 
few. Absolute consecration is the essential 
fact of all Christian life. I have always thought 
that there was something akin to the Roman 
Catholic doctrine concerning " works of super- 
erogation " in the unguarded statements of 
some godly teachers of this school. 

If, then, the inquirer regards this obligation 
as the experience of only a few, and tells you 
of those in his own-family who have not at- 
tained it, answer him with the Lord's words. 
For this purpose I suggest the use of. Luke 
9: 62; Matt. 10: 37-39. What words more 
definite than these could have been spoken? 



50 WORDS IN SEASON. 

Show him his danger if he hesitates. Point 
him to the disappointment described in Luke 
13 : 26. Warn him that profession is not pos- 
session. Not to be recognized by Christ is to 
be a " worker of iniquity, " even though we may 
have passed peculiar privileges and stations 
in the Church. 

Your whole basis of instruction, always re- 
member, is the fact of the inquirer's posses- 
sion of an indwelling Christ. Your expecta- 
tion of success is that as this new life develops 
it will instinctively assert itself. Doubtless 
consecration is placed before us, in other 
scriptures as a claim of God, growing out of 
the fact of our Lord's redemption. For this 
refer to 1 Corinthians 6: 20; 7: 23. Far dif- 
ferent inferences are here drawn from our 
purchase by blood. But the particular view 
of consecration, that I am now pressing, is illus- 
trated in the lives of the early Church. Use 
Acts 5:454: 32. The Apostle here distinctly 
tells Ananias and Sapphira that no compul- 
sion had been laid upon them. It was their 
own voluntary act. And in the second pas- 
sage the early Christians are reported as not 
saying any of them " that aught of the things 



A WHOLE HEART OR NONE. 



51 



which he possessed was his own." It was 
this instinctive consecration which rendered 
possible the communism of Acts 2: 44-45. In 
illustration of this necessity of the new nature, 
and as an adequate expression of its experience, 
I recall the rule of the Redemptorists. Amidst 
all their superstitious uses they are said to 
preserve this daily direction : u Before you 
begin your work, say, * All for Thee, O Lord : 
O my Jesus, all for Thee/ " 

To impress upon the inquirer the extent of 
the consecration expected by the Lord, and 
the many powers by which the new life can 
prove itself, are such passages of God's Word 
as your knowledge of his particular tempera- 
ment and circumstances indicate to be appli- 
cable. For the instinctiveness of consecration 
you can show none more pointed than 1 Cor- 
inthians 6: 20; 1 Thess. 5: 23. How the 
" whole spirit, soul and body," are in turn 
mentioned. Thus all inclusive of all that He 
is, has, and can do. Being, enduring, doing, 
are the three features of consecration and show 
them in all their manifold relations. To enter 
more into detail may in some instances be 
very needful. 



52 WORDS IN SEASON. 

You will find a difference among inquirers. 
A lively, hearty sort of fellow will come to 
you, who, perhaps, is intemperate, as certain 
undeniable facts will show — selfishness wi 1 ! 
predominate in his nature. With such a 01;*, 
you want to emphasize the Lord's demand for 
his body as well as his soul. Show to him 
that the new life must control everything ; 
level your gun and fire point-blank at his re- 
bellious body ; tell him (i Cor. 6 : 13) " Meats 
for the belly, and the belty for meats, but God 
shall destroy both it and them." An indwell- 
ing Christ demands a pure body, consecrated 
body, yielded up, that the Lord may do what 
He pleases with it, and as long as He pleases. 
Consider the prayer of the apostle, " I beseech 
you therefore, brethren, hy the mercies of 
God, that ye present your bodies a living sac- 
rifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is 
your reasonable service" (Rom. 12; 1) "for 
as ye have yielded your members servants to 
uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity ; 
even so now yield your members servants to 
righteousness unto holiness," (Rom. 6:19). 
" Know ye not your bodies are the members 
of Christ ? " (1 Cor. 6 : 15.) To this vital point 
every seeker must be brought. 



A WHOLE HEART OR XOA r E. 



53 



Then in regard to the consecration of the 
mind. u We have the mind of Christ " (i Cor. 
2: 1 6), and " Let this mind be in you, which 
was also in Christ Jesus " (Phil. 2:5); also con- 
sider the exhortation (1 Pet. 4: i), 44 Forasmuch 
as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm 
yourselves likewise with the same mind." We 
shall have occasion to use this Scripture in 
our counsel with those tempted to intellectual 
pride and self-conceits, apply to them this test 
of the thoughts and intents of the heart: re- 
quire that their modes of thought, the nature 
of their desires and aim of purpose shall be 
subordinated to Christ's mind and precepts, 
that whatever the Holy Spirit impels man to 
do, it must be done; that the mind is to be 
consecrated to the control of the Lord Jesus 
in all things, and according to His revealed 
will. 

To those who have too much heart, are 
characteristically loving, demonstrative, whose 
difficulties lie in the direction of enthusiasm, 
give instruction of the requirement to "love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with 
all thy soul, and with all thy mind " (Matt. 
22 : 37), that all love of every name and nature 



54 WORDS IN SEA SOX. 

must be in and through Jesus Christ, whereby 
only it can be sanctified, and be well-pleasing 
to God, Love is of God, and when that love* 
is shed abroad in our hearts, we shall love 
Him and all His, in the truth, but not with 
any other love. 

There may appear those who are troubled 
about submitting their will to Christ. This, 
too, must be consecrated, and brought into 
subjection, slavery, so to speak, to another, 
that is Christ. This is not at all impossible if 
one has the person and power of Christ within ; 
this perfect agency will avail to bring it about. 
For " he no longer should live the rest of his 
time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the 
will of God ; for the time past of oi;r life may 
suffice us to have wrought the will of the 
Gentiles" (i Pet. 4:2, 3); "for if there be 
first a willing mind it is accepted according to 
that a man hath " (2 Cor. 8 : 12), to bear and 
do what Christ wills. 

In regard to consecration of life, we have 
the example of these of whom it is said, " They 
first gave their own selves to the Lord " (2 
Cor. 8 : 5); and this they did for the instruction 
and culture of the Church, to be used, sent in 



A WHOLE HEART OR XOXE. 55 

God's service. And so should all " be trans- 
formed by the renewing of your mind, that 
ye may prove what is that good, and accept- 
able, and perfect will of God." 

And hereby through this consecration is 
gotten a grander character than by any other 
hope, or struggle. 

1 give you in closing, these lines, which 
might fitly be used as a form of consecration 
among "inquirers." 

" All for Jesus ! all for Jesus ! 

All my being's ransomed powers ; 
All my thoughts, and words, and doings, 

All my days, and all my hours, 
All for Jesus ! all for Jesus ! 

All my days, and all my hours." 

(Winnowed Hymns.) 



"I WANT TO BE BETTER BEFORE 
COMING." 

Rev. GEORGE H. HEPWORTH. 

Many an inquirer can give no better an- 
swer to the invitation to come to Christ than 
" I want to be better before coming." Such 
a one stands as Elisha might have stood after 
the chariot had carried away Elijah, on the 
farther side of the river, anxious to cross, and 
afraid to venture, if he had not possessed 
the miracle- working mantle of the prophet, 
with which to smite the stream. The fear- 
ful and timed inquirer, who hesitates to go on 
his way rejoicing needs only to have the di- 
vine mantle of Christ, and the faith to call upon 
the God and Father of Christ. Many souls 
have found just religion enough to make them 
miserable, but not enough to bring them out 
of the misery of doubt and fear. 

We may divide the class of people of whom 
we are taking a survey into two parts. 
First, There are some who say they are "not 
good enough," by way of an excuse from do- 
ing the bidding of those who urge them 



'/ WANT TO. BE BETTER BEFORE COMING." 



57 



to press on to Christ; who do not really desire 
a close and intimate communion with Him, 
and do not care to put themselves under the 
restrictions of Christian life. That such as 
these are sometimes fjund inside the Church 
is the result of the too ardent desire of minis- 
ters to increase the roll of church member- 
ship. They who have never truly known 
Christ may be wrongly urged to unite with 
the Church, and if they do comply, they do it as 
though they were thereby conferring a favor 
on God. The gospel hope is a grand prerog- 
ative to be longed for and enjoyed, rather 
than a matter for the exercise of a sinner's 
condescension. It seems in its practical 
working as if the gospel's large - hearted- 
ness stood in the way of its right apprecia- 
tion. If its privileges w r ere possible only to 
the few, if a large price were demanded for 
them, they would be eagerly sought; if every 
vacant position in Christ's church were to be 
prayecrand paid for, there would never be such 
an excuse offered as " I want to be better before 
coming," or, " I am not good enough." But 
one of the difficulties of ministers in urging 
the acceptance of the gospel upon the uncon- 



58 WORDS IA r SEAiOX. 

verted lies in the absolute, undeniable fact, that 
the gospel is so large-handed and free to all. 

Second, Those who say they are not good 
enough, and mean it. We should say to all such : 
" You are quite right ; your estimate of yourself 
is only just; you have made no mistake on this 
important subject; you are not good enough 
to enjoy divine privileges, and if your hopes 
depended on your merit or deserving, you 
would have no right whatever to reach out for 
the precious gifts in God's outstretched hand. 
This plainly appears in the divine illustration 
of the condemned Pharisee, who, with all 
his righteousnesses, failed of the justifica- 
tion which rather belonged to the self-abased 
publican." (Luke 18 : 9-14.) With those who 
so come, under an honest sense of unworthi- 
ness, go slowly in the twilight of dawn which 
has broken upon their spiritual sight. If 
they are so truly conscious of unworthiness, 
the hand of the dear Lord will lead them 
wisely and duly to the light of the perfect day, 
and bring them at length to the desirable posi- 
tion of the poor publican. Tell such a soul that 
the true question which stands first before it, is 
not whether it is good enough, but whether 



U I WANT TO BE BETTER BEFORE COMING." Jg 

Christ's invitation includes it. The great 
question is not in any wise of the soul's 
merit, but of the scope of the gospel 
invitation, whether God is good enough 
to accept it just as it is. Make it plain that 
whoever must needs keep the law, to find 
acceptance with God, might as well give up 
all hope now and forever. Only Christ Jesus 
ever kept the law, and we can never hope to 
attain to His standard. Then will arise the ea- 
ger thought, " How much less than conformity 
to the standard of the perfect stature of Christ 
will give me any hope? Is there any invi- 
tation which will include me, a sinner; and if 
so, how shall I accept it?" 

No two men ever went through precisely 
the same experience of sorrow or joy ; and so, 
believing it would be unprofitable, I very 
seldom attempt to bring my own personal 
experience to bear on inquirers. I refer every 
seeking soul to the Word of God, and to that 
alone; assured as I am that therein will be 
found a prescription for every known spiritual 
disease, If that gives not health, then the 
case is hopeless. From this principle it fol- 
lows that if the inquirer is not provided 



60 WORDS IN SEA SOX. 

with the medicine which can heal his disease, 
the teacher is at fault. 

You say you think yourself sinful. God 
entirely agrees with you ; and the only differ- 
ence between your thought and God's, is that 
He speaks of the whole human race, and you 
of only your own particular condition. God 
says, u There is none righteous; no, not one ! " 
(Rom. 3 : 10), wherefore you and I stand on 
the common level of an universal unworthiness, 
and a complete sense of demerit becomes us. 
Our disease is like a bad case of leprosy which 
has covered us from the crown of the head to 
the soles of the feet. When the seeker shall 
have come to this sense, then is he on the 
right road, and until he has come to this sense, 
there is no point of contact between him and 
the Holy Ghost of God. 

Then sav to the inquirer who has recos:- 
nized this first element of preparation, to 
find Christ, and walk in Him, if you 
are to be redeemed, it will not be because 
you love God, but because, and only be- 
cause, God loves you. " Herein is Jove, 
not that we loved God, but that He loved us, 
and sent His Son to be the propitiation for 



"7 WANT TO BE BET1ER BEFORE COMING!' 6 1 

our sins." (i Jno. 4: 10.) " Ye have not 
chosen me, but I have chosen you." (Jno. 15 : 
16.) It is enough for you if you have an 
abiding faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and so 
take upon you His sinlessness. You are not 
the one to choose God, but God is the one to 
choose you, and you have no right to ask the 
why and wherefore. Y r ou need not be anxious 
about the largeness of the amount which the 
note promises to pay, if only the autograph 
of the Almighty is signed upon its face, or 
endorsed on its back. Our business is to have 
no cherished theories of our own, concerning 
the facts or methods of salvation, but to go to 
the Bible to find out what God says, and 
believe and accept that with all the heart. 

No matter how much you do, you cannot 
save yourself. The word is plainly before you 
for you to believe upon the divine authority : 
"Knowing that a man is not justified by the 
works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus 
Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, 
that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, 
and not by the works of the law: for by the 
works of the law shall no flesh be justified." 
(Gal. 2 : 16.) Then listening to such words 



62 WORDS IN SZA SON. 

proceeding out of God's mouth, has "not 
good enough," anything to do with your 
acceptance and salvation with Him? The 
rags of your righteousness (Tsa. 64:6) are 
nothing, for the justifying of faith is all, 
and this only is demanded of you, and this is 
absolutel} r required. You cannot get on toward 
peace with God till you give up all self-right- 
eousness ; not till you depend wholly upon the 
righteousness and faith of Christ. (Jer. 23 : 6.) 
" If we confess our sins, He is faithful and 
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us 
from all unrighteousness " — (1 Jno. 1 : 6.) God 
requires such a confession from "every man; 
and says, at- the lips of Jesus, " Whosoever, 
therefore, shall confess me before men, him will 
I confess also before my Father which is in 
heaven " — (Matt. 10 : 32.) " If thou shalt con- 
fess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall 
believe in thine heart that God hath raised 
hirn from the dead, thou shalt be saved ; for 
with the heart man belie veth unto righteous- 
ness, and with the mouth confession is made 
unto salvation. (Rom. 10: 9, 10.) So is set 
forth the desired^end of a sinner's hope — right- 
eousness and salvation. 



"/ WANT TO BE BETTER BEFORE COMIXGT 63 

There will be, can be no difficulty in y*iur 
case if you have the longing to be saved you 
profess, for here is a short road out of difficulty. 
You said, "You are not good enough to go to 
Christ," and I have told you that you spoke 
the truth ; and you cannot be better, for there 
is no righteousness attainable by you, and the 
only question before you by any hopeful possi- 
bility is : Will God accept you, just as you are ? 
And 1 insist only that you start for the lowest 
valley of humiliation, and begin there to go 
step by step up to the heights of joy and peace 
in close approach to God ; and this you may 
do through a simple, close-clinging faith in 
the Lord Jesus Christ. So only will you have 
3-eached the foundation truth of Christian 
character. 



SKEPTICAL DIFFICULTIES. 
Rev. WILLIAM J. TUCKER, D.D. 

We are to bear in mind that the subject 
before us is not skepticism, but skeptical 
difficulties. 

We are concerned, that is, with skepticism, 
only as it finds its way into the inquiry-room. 

With the great outer skepticism, showing 
itself in open attack, or in insidious sugges- 
tion, or in indifference — creating what Prof. 
Huxley calls an extra Christian world — we 
have nothing now to do. It is not our work 
to encounter skeptics. We are to meet our 
brother men as they come to us with "eyes 
holden," that they see not Christ. 

Again, we must remember that doubt, as a 
mental difficulty, is not unbelief, which is sin 
— as much sin as impurity or greed. " I dare 
not sin against charity by that hasty solution 
of a brother's doubts which so easily refers 
intellectual perplexities to moral declination," 
are words of true Christian utterance. 

Some skepticism may be dishonest, rind 
more may be superficial, but we must 'be pre- 

(6 4 ) • 



SKEP TIC A L DIFFIC UL TIE S. 6 5 

pared for the highest type. We may find 
ourselves in the presence of great, honest souls, 
whose doubts date back of our beliefs. Next 
to faith, the most solemn thing is doubt. 

There must be no rudeness of touch in the 
Inquiry-room. We must approach souls in the 
love, not of pity, but of respect 

It is important for us to look into the origins 
of some of the more common types of skepti- 
cism, such as produce many of the difficulties 
we are to meet. 

We shall find that with many, doubt has 
become a habit. The individual mind has 
caught the habit of the age. Men question, 
rather than weigh and decide. Everything is 
an open question, and all things have been re- 
duced to equality; the spiritual to the plane 
of the material. This habit is a most serious 
embarrassment to a soul seeking at last to 
know God, rather than to ask about Him. 

Skepticism, with other minds, is the result 
of partial reading. 

The majority take the reading matter which 
comes to them, borne in upon their minds 
through the current literature. 

This literature leaves deposits of doubt, 
5 



66 WORDS IN SEASON. 

which in time accumulate to the displace- 
ment of truth. To keep a just balance, the 
mind must be as well stored with the facts of 
the spiritual life, as with the facts of the secu- 
lar life. Facts are as necessary to religion as 
sentiment. 

And very much like this, is the skepticism 
which comes from large contact with men. 
The majority read only the current man, as 
they read only the current book. 

We do not study the best lives in business 
or in the Church. Hence that worst of all 
doubts — as to the reality of Christian living. 

It is so easy to transfer a doubt touching 
the man who bears the name of Christ, to the 
truth itself. 

Nor can we ignore the fact that something 
of the skepticism of the time is the result of 
over or wrong religious training. Many have 
been trained to believe, more than to think. 
Beliefs thus formed are disturbed by contact 
with the world. Things are seen to be non- 
essential which had been set forth as essential, 
and yet the mind is in no way qualified to 
discriminate. And so the very foundations 
of faith are shaken. 



SKEPTICAL DIFFICULTIES. 



6 7 



Something of what appears to be the selfish 
eagerness of Christians to listen to Mr. Mood} 7 , 
bears this charitable construction, that it is 
the real yearning of unsatisfied believers for a 
simple faith. 

There is one other source which we must 
not overlook, where a doubt has been harbored 
to shield a sin. Conscience may at last have 
thrown off the sin, but the doubt remains. It 
is not infrequently the case that it is easier to 
dislodge a given sin, than some of its allies. 

How, now, shall we meet those under skepti- 
cal difficulties, whatever may have been the 
origin of their doubts? Certain principles 
apply in all cases. 

First. We must confront all doubt with 
reality. 

Much depends upon the personal bearing 
of the believer. It is an argument to look 
upon some faces. Doubt is unrest ; faith is 
repose. Doubt is trouble ; faith is peace. All 
natures in real repose are restful, so Christ 
said to men, with an infinite meaning, " Come 
unto me." It was enough to touch His life, 
for He lived back among the eternal realities. 
He thought in one world, and spoke in 



68 WORDS nv SEASON. 

another. He made men feel the presence of 
the things of which He testified. 

So it will be in our contact with all restless and 
disturbed minds ; we shall give them more out 
of what we are, than out of what we say. The 
first step toward the reality of faith is the im- 
pression they may receive of the reality of our 
own faith to us. 

Again, We must endeavor, in all ways, to 
strengthen the spiritual nature which is under 
the doubt. 

What is doubt? What is faith? Faith is 
the man believing. What is sin? Sin is the 
man sinning. So, doubt is the man doubting, 
and we want the man for Christ. If we can 
reach him, and strengthen his conscience and 
whole spiritual nature, he will throw off the 
doubt. 

Never argue against a specific doubt, for in 
so doing, though you may have the weightier 
argument, you have enlisted the sympathies 
of the man for the weaker side. You have 
killed the doubt, perhaps, but you have not 
saved the man. 

It was one method of Christ to confront 
questioning minds with questions greater than 



SKEP TICAL DIFFICUL TIE S, £g 

those they were entertaining: to turn the 
mind from what was speculative to what was 
practical. It is possible for us, at times, to ap- 
ply this method. There are questions to the 
life, which, rightly put, at once take prece- 
dence in the mind. 

But the chief ministry which we can render 
to ail doubting souls, is to give them the quick- 
est possible contact with Christ, the living 
Christ. Not lead them to doctrines about 
Christ; not now, even to His cross, but to 
Christ Himself. 

There is but one place where the mind in 
its wearied strivings can find rest, and that is 
in the presence of Jesus. There faith begins 
its work. Once with Christ, faith can reveal 
to a soul its most blessed offices. 

Christ Himself is the il door," the " way," 
the " light." We must let nothing which be- 
longs on the other side, intervene between an 
inquiring soul and Christ. 

"Ye will not come unto me," was the sad- 
dest of all the laments of Christ. 

And as regards the use of the Bible, we are 
not to send such an inquirer to the Bible at 
large. We are to pla:e him lightly in the 
Bible, that is, somewhere with Christ. 



70 WORDS IN SEASON. 

There is a most suggestive expression given 
in the story of the Eunuch to whom Philip was 
sent. The place of the Scripture which he 
read, was this : " He was lead as a lamb to the 
slaughter." It was easy for Philip to expound 
that Scripture. 

Christ made wonderful concessions to hon- 
est doubt. What He denied to Mary in her 
love, that He gave to Thomas in his doubt. 
The greater blessing still goes with the ready 
faith, but the greater proof is still granted to 
all reluctant minds. 

We still have, as I believe, the sweet permis- 
sion of Christ to say to every honestly doubt- 
ing soul, as we may lead him into the presence 
of the crucified One, " Reach hither thy finger 
and behold the hands : and reach hither thy 
hand and thrust it into the side, and be not 
faithless, but believing." 



"WAITING FOR THE SPIRIT." 

Rev. JAMES M. KING. 

When John the Baptist came preaching 
in the Wilderness, the baptism of repentance 
for the " remission of sins," there was raised 
great expectation whether he were the Christ ; 
he replied to the inquiries, u I indeed baptize 
j^ou with water unto repentance, but he that 

cometh after me is mightier than I 

He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost 
and with fire." (Matt. 3: 11.) Among the 
crowds who flocked to John's baptism, was 
one man of such grace and wisdom that 
John, at first, was not willing to baptize Him, 
but He insisted upon being baptized to fulfil 
all righteousness, and when He was so bap- 
tized, the voice from heaven was heard to 
say, " This is my Beloved Son in whom I 
am well pleased," and John testified that 
the heavens were opened before him, and he 
saw the Spirit of God descend as a dove, 
and lighting upon Jesus. (Matt. 3: 15-17.) 
This same Jesus, towards the end of His 
ministry, spoke of "Another," whom the 
world could not receive, but the disciples 

(7!) 



72 



V/ORDS IN SEASON. 



would know Him, for He would dwell with 
them, and be in them" (J no. 14: 16, 17), 
and who could not come unless Christ first 
went away from earth ; but when He, the 
Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, should 
come, it would be better for tbem than 
if Christ Himself had remained on earth, 
because the Comforter should convince 
the world of sin, and of righteousness, and 
of judgment. (Jno. 16: 7, 8.) After thus 
telling the disciples to expect the coming 
of such "Another," Jesus laid down His 
life upon the cross, an*d after,, on His first 
appearance among the disciples, He breathed 
on them and said, " Receive ye the Holy 
Ghost." (Jno. 20: 19-22.) But this was not 
the "fire;" for before His ascension into heaven, 
He commanded them to tarry in Jerusalem 
till they should be endued with power from 
on high. So they returned from Olivet with 
joy to await the coming of the Comforter. 
After waiting ten long days, and while they 
were in the upper room in prayer, the prom- 
ise was fulfilled according to the Baptist's 
testimony. Jesus gave them the baptism of 
the Holy Ghost and of fire, and to this 



WAITING FOR THE SPIRIT. 



73 



agreed Peter's testimony that day. "He 
hath shed forth this which ye now see and 
hear." (Acts 2 : 33.) When the Holy Ghost 
came upon them, "suddenly there came a 
sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty 
wind, and it filled all the house where they 
were sitting, and there appeared unto them 
cloven tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each 
of them." (Acts 2: 2, 3.) So was ushered in 
the new dispensation of the Holy Ghost, and 
it began with the one hundred and twenty 
who were watching and praying in an upper 
room, baptized with His own Spirit. 

The Scriptures lead us to the direct con- 
clusion, that the Holy Spirit is the divine 
agent in the conversion of souls ; and that He 
is around and with us, and that all religious ex- 
perience is by His immediate operation, and 
all right influence in the work of revival of 
religion must be traced to the Holy Ghost 
as the fountain-head. The new creation is at- 
tributed to the Holy Ghost; all the blaze of 
conviction of sin, and the sorrow 7 following ; 
all the tenderness which persuades to, and 
gives joy in, the soul's surrender, is the work 
of the Holy Ghost; He draws us to, and by 



74 WORDS IN SEA SOX. 

Him, we come to, and receive Christ the Sav- 
iour. He tells of the divine relationship into 
which the repentant sinner is brought as a 
child of the heavenly Father, received into 
the family of God, and encourages in the soul 
of man the spirit of sons of God, sets upon it 
the stamp of Deity, whereby it cries, " Abba, 
Father!" (Rom. 8 : 15.) 

Of course, the repentant sinner drawn by 
the Spirit, and waiting for a consciousness of 
the Spirit's presence, desires above all things 
to know that his relationship is changed and 
that adoption has taken place. Now, adoption 
is well defined to be, il a gracious act of God 
the Father, whereby for the sake of the atone- 
ment made by Christ on the cross, and in 
consideration of faith on the part of His creat- 
ures in that atonement, Fie receives into His 
family, and admits to all the privileges of His 
house, those who trust in His Son/' 

Some of the most patent facts in making up 
this judgment are: 1st, the obedient spirit 
has taken the place of rebellion ; 2d, con- 
scious liberty from the thraldrom of sin ; 3d, a 
teachable^ spirit; 4th, a sense of safety; 5th, 
joy, growing out of the fact that the future 



" WAITING FOR THE SPIRIT:' 75 

relationship is to be that of a child and not a 
criminal. I belies the Scriptures prove it to 
be the privilege of every soul coming to God, 
to have "a satisfactory and joyful persuasion 
produced by the Holy Spirit in the mind, 
that he is now a child of God." 

How the Spirit enters man's nature, and 
leavens his faculties, God has neither re- 
vealed, nor does the consciousness inform us. 
As the workings of God in the processes of 
nature are incomprehensible, so also are the 
workings of the Holy Spirit in the heart of 
man. This very analogy (John 3 : 8) Jesus 
employs as a rebuke to speculation on a sub- 
ject which to human reason is absolutely 
mysterious. All efforts to explain away the 
meaning of Scripture bearing upon this evi- 
dence of our relationship to God as children, 
will but dissipate faith, and lower the ideal of 
Christian privilege. Let the Lord do His 
own explaining. 

What is it " to wait for the Spirit?" Not to 
stand in a posture of spiritual curiosity, as 
waiting for some mysterious, magical token, 
like the diseased people in the porches of 
Bethesda. Waiting is not idle endeavor, per- 



j 6 " ' WORDS IN SEA SOX. 

fectly at our own ease, and neglecting effort 
and anxiety, not a mere passive attitude of 
soul, but with the mind set upon a given point, 
in which expectation is the main-spring. 
" Meditate on these things, give thyself wholly 
to them," as the mother waits for her loved boy, 
the maiden for her mistress, the wife for the 
footsteps of her husband, the merchant for 
his richly-freighted ships, as the one hun- 
dred and twenty waited, praying for that 
for which they waited. 

While the inquirer is taught to wait for the 
Spirit, he is not to do it without effort on his 
own part to encourage, to secure the Spirit's 
corning; but to wait as the mariner waits for 
the freshening of the breeze by first spread- 
ing the sail. It is not waiting for miracles to 
be wrought, for " the kingdom of heaven comes 
not with observation.' 5 It is not waiting for 
the noisy cataract, but for the distilling of the 
life-giving dew. It is not waiting for the 
lightning flash, but for the morning sun to call 
the seeds of divine planting into life, and to 
melt the clouds of darknezs into luminous 
ether. The Spirit is speaking now, not in the 
roar of thunder, nor. in the crash of earth- 



" WAITING FOR THE SPIRIT." 77 

quake ? but in "the still small voice. 5 ' Hear 
Him! 

Have the Word of God not only in the 
head and heart, but also in the hand, and be 
able to turn to the "thus saith the Lord." 
The Spirit uses the Word as the instrumental 
means. The Word makes sin's defilement evi- 
dent — shows the remedy — -urges its adoption — 
presents powerful motives to the mind. Make 
yourselves familiar with the passages of Scrip- 
ture bearing upon the divinity and personality 
of the Holy Spirit. The inquirer must under- 
stand that he is waiting for a real, but invisi- 
ble personal presence, and not simply for an 
influence. Pentecost proves the personality 
and real presence of the Hoi}' Ghost. 

The inquirer must understand that the Holy 
Ghost teaches, seals, comforts, witnesses, and 
gives power to wait, and power to supplicate. 

Inquirers should be warned against resist- 
ing, while -the} 7 imagine they are waiting for 
the Holy Spirit ; to be carefully in an attitude 
of waiting, and not in fact resisting, hindering, 
obstructing His work. 

The inquirer needs to be impressed with 
the Father's willingness to give him the Holy 



f$ WORDS IN SEA SON. 

Spirit, as shown in the Lord's declaration— 
" If ye then being evil, know how to give good 
gifts unto your children, how much more shall 
your Father which is in heaven give good things 
to them that ask Him ?-" Also make plain the 
accessibility of the Holy Spirit, that even in 
the moment of looking, waiting, He is within 
reach. As Jesus was accessible when here 
on the earth, so now, and even more, if possible, 
is the Holy Spirit ready for our need ; for Je- 
. sus went away that every individual on earth, 
in every place, might have what they could 
not, from the very nature of things, have had 
if we had only the same Jesus, in the body, as 
our friend here : that is, have Him in all places 
at once ; but now all by the Spirit's presence 
have God with them and in them. 

Inquirers must be given to understand that 
they are included in the promise of the gift of 
the Holy Ghost. The preaching of Pentecost 
was, " Whosoever shall call on the name of the 
Lord, shall be saved." To receive Him is not 
an exclusive privilege, and, therefore, all need 
to pray, and to confidently wait for the gift. 
And we must so wait in prayer as we are 
taught by John (i Epis. 5 : 14), " this is the 



11 WAITING FOR THE SPIRIT!' 79 

confidence that we have in Him, that if we 
ask anything according to His will, He hear- 
eth us," which anchors our confidence to the 
all-sufficing dispensation of the Holy Ghost. 
Show them that their anxiety on account of 
sin is, according to the promise of John 16 : 8, 
proof of the Holy Ghost's work in their 
hearts now, and they are not far from the king- 
dom of heaven ; an assurance that, the truth, 
which the Holy Ghost only can effectually 
use, has made some impress on the soul, but 
that it cannot be made durable, permanent, 
till the Spirit so fixes it. Unless so fixed, it 
w r ill be as the early efforts of Daugerre, who 
vainly labored to retain the image upon the 
sensitive plate of the camera. But the Holy 
Spirit's power will effectually operate upon 
their now sensitive hearts, else all the past and 
present results will be in vain. Let him tarry 
in the darkened room of penitence until the di- 
vine chemical power fixes the truth upon the 
heart's tablet. And now, dear fellow-laborer, 
let us think on our own preparation for the in- 
quiry-room. The most important work of a 
revival is done there. Conversions are not 
often made in the great congregation ; the 



80 WORDS IN SEASON. 

contest, hand to hand, with sin, is a personal 
encounter, which is best ended with the sword 
of the Spirit unsheathed. The Pentecostal ex- 
perience is our best example; there we find* 
no listlessness, but all were united in, expec- 
tation, and continued in prayer: the apostles 
waiting for the power to come, and which did 
not come on them till the spirit of worldli- 
ness, and the lust of earthly glory and praise, 
indicated by longings for a temporal king- 
dom of Messiah, were burned out of their 
hearts. Then let us tarry in the upper 
room of consecration, till the fire qualifies us 
to help men, and when we come out of the 
upper chamber, inquirers will not wait long to 
say, " God is indeed here;" and " I believe in 
the Holy Ghost." Then will we be found in the 
spiritual frame to yearn over the impenitent, 
and to use with unwonted power and point 
the sword of the Spirit as was done at Pence- 
cost. We need to know that though revela- 
tion is ended, inspiration is not. Though once 
God revealed Himself by the voice, by th@ 
flame, by vision, in the cloud, through the vail 
of flesh, now Pie dwells in man, and is 
made known b}^ the tongue of flame on the 



"WAITING FOR THE SPIRIT." 8 1 

humble brow of each of those who have His 
Spirit, and He enthrones Himself on human 
hearts. We must have the Holy Spirit, or we 
can do no work that will stanch We can only 
work for God when the Holy Spirit shines in 
our own souls, and upon the soul of the man 
we seek to have saved. 

There is a picture hanging in one of the 
galleries of Europe, which represents a prisoner 
confined in his cell under religious persecution. 
He is chiselling out with rude implements (a 
rough piece of iron for his chisel, and a block 
of wood for his mallet,) upon the stone wall 
of his cell, a picture of Christ on the cross. 
The light of the sun only shines in, an hour or 
two each da}-, so that he can see to work. 
The rest of. the time it is dark and he cannot 
work. So we can only work when the Holy 
Spirit, the divine illuminator, is present. Then 
only can we carve the image of Christ cruci- 
fied upon stony hearts. Our implements may 
be rude, but if the image is that of Christ 
Crucified, and the Spirit does shine, the work 
will stand. 

" Grant this, O holy God and true : 

The ancient seers Thou didst inspire, — 
To us perform the promise due, — 
6 Descend, and crown us now with fire." 



"I HAVE NO FEELING/' 
Rev. THOS. S. HASTINGS, D.D. 

We hear these words as a common form of 
complaint, or as an excuse for not laying hold 
of Christ. We meet those who are anxious be- 
cause they are not sufficiently anxious, and 
some who would by this plea throw the re- 
sponsibility of their continued- impenitence 
upon God. Some there are who are hoping to 
escape the wrench and struggle of surrender- 
ing the world, and submitting to Christ by 
some flood-tide of feeling which will float 
them into the haven of rest and peace. 

Men indeed are prompted to inquiry after 
the truth by different motives; but we may 
be certain that none who make this complaint 
are wholly devoid of anxious feeling ; they 
have all the feeling they wish, and yet they 
may have a large measure of faith. There is 
always a singular disproportion between what 
w/e believe and the feelings we experience; 
none of us feel as we should the majesty and 
magnificence of the grand truths of the king- 
dom of Christ ; or the pathos and power of the 
(82) 



"I HA VE NO FEELING." 83 

cross ; or the claims of the love " which pass- 
eth knowledge. " Therefore we are not to be 
surprised at the want of feeling in inquirers. 

There are some general principles which 
should be stated before turning to the more 
directly practical part of this subject. 

1st. Feelings are not primary nor indepen- 
dent states of the mind ; but only secondary, 
resulting from, or attending upon, the exertion 
of faculty, or the stirring of capacity. There 
must first be knowledge, then the feeling stir- 
red by that knowledge ; the relation between 
them being that of cause and effect; but 
betxfeen these two a variety of circumstances 
may intervene to disturb the just influence of 
the given cause. We need to teach the in- 
quirer that feeling is a secondary matter, a 
mere surface matter, and not permanent and 
abiding. Mysticism gives the precedence to 
feeling and not to truth ; but this .reverses the 
order of nature. It is the work of the Holy 
Spirit to touch and kindle the heart into right 
'feeling through the quickened perception of 
the truth. 

2d. Nothing could be further icm the truth 
than that ebullient feeling % ls a main part of re- 



84 WORDS IN SEA soy. 

ligion. Repentance, faith, love, hope, grati- 
tude, joy — these are the constituent elements 
of religious experience. It cannot be ques- 
tioned that there are feelings of penitence 
faith, love, hope, gratitude, and joy ; but there 
are also fixed principles or states of the soul 
from which these corresponding feelings come. 
A distinguished writer of our time says: 
" Love is not a mere sentiment or casual 
emotion, but it is the man's settled affinity — it 
is that which is to his character what the 
magnetic force is to the needle — the power 
that adjusts all his aims and works, and 
practically determines the man." This rerriark 
applies also more or less to each of the ele- 
ments of religious experience just specified ; 
they are all primarily states or principles, and 
only secondarily feelings. 

3d. A fact should here be noticed whose 
practical bearing will be sufficiently apparent. 
As Christian principles strengthen, the feelings 
related to them become (ordinarily) less and less 
vivid and demonstrative, and the work of the 
Christian life is motived more and more by set- 
tled convictions. Henry Rogers says, " He 
who feels poignantly (1 do not say deeply, but 



"/ HA VE NO FEE LING r 85 

poignantly), the distress which he relieves is a 
novice in benevolence." The deep nature 
does quietly that which the shallow nature 
is only excited about, but does not accom- 
plish. 

Before passing to the more practical illus- 
tration of my subject, I wish it understood 
that I would by no means discredit the value 
and power of Christian feeling. God forbid! 
We should feel, and feel deeply. Christian 
enthusiasm is noble and we need far more of 
it. It has been said that the head gives artil- 
lery, but the heart powder "for life's daily 
battle." There are two classes of Christians, 
those who live by emotional impulses, and 
those who are controlled by the steady move- 
ment of principles firmly imbedded in the 
soul; the one is like the packet ship which 
goes out to sea, liable to be becalmed, or to be 
driven out of its course by adverse winds; 
but the other is like the steamer which, in 
spite of calm or tempest, is driven by the 
might of the powerful engine that is within, 
and moves ever straight onward, even in the 
face and teeth of the wind ; and yet the steam- 
er does not fail when the day is propitious to 



S6 WORDS IA r SEA SO. V. 

make use of the sails which she has ever ready 
to be spread to the winds. 

There will be found two classes of inquirers 
who will say, " I have no feeling" — the un- 
converted and the converted. 

I. There will be those who at some former 
period, perhaps in early life, passed through 
one or more revivals, in which they were to 
some degree impressed with the truth, and 
who yet bear the scars — hard and callous — of 
that experience ; and now they desire and 
expect once more to feel as they formerly did ; 
but this is unreasonable, and we should urge 
them to forget the things which are behind, 
and to reach forth to those which are before. 
Tell them they do not need, and cannot have 
again, the same experiences; they themselves 
are not now the same persons the}^ were ; they 
need only Jesus Christ. 

II. Again, there are those who saj' T , " I can- 
not feel," who have been religiously educated, 
and who from their childhood have been 
familiar with the great truths of our holy re- 
ligion, and have schooled themselves to resist 
the claims of those truths ; they do not feel, 
because they have trained themselves not to 



'/ HA ve xo feeling: 1 s 



/ 



feel ; but they must now act upon their con- 
victions of the truth, Their deadness of heart 
is the fruit and penalty of a violated educa- 
tion. 

III. And there are those who have formed 
vague notions of what they may expect to 
feel if they become Christians, which notions 
they have derived from reading- religious 
books: I mean religions biographies, with the 
diaries of those who were eminently religious. 
These books, in their descriptions of expe- 
rience, are often abnormally colored. By such 
reading many inquirers unconsciously set for 
themselves a standard to which they expect 
to attain. Tell them they must look away 
from all human standards ; they have not yet 
been in a position to comprehend the descrip- 
tions of religious feeling which they have read, 
Bring them back to the simple New Testa- 
ment direction, " Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ and thou shalt be saved " (Acts 16: 31). 

IV. There will be some morbid, diseased 
natures who have the chronic habit of looking 
within themselves, studying their feeling*, or 
want of feeling ; they have become dissatis- 
fied, despondent, and miserable. These people 



8 8 » r ORD S IN SEA SOX. 

should be reminded that we are counseled 
and commanded of God to " Behold the Lamb 
of God, which taketh away the sin of the 
world " (John i : 29), to live by " looking unto 
Jesus"—/, e., we are to look avva)^ from self, 
and to look to Christ the only Saviour. 

To all who come to us with this common 
complaint, we should say: "Feeling cannot 
save you ! Only Jesus Christ can do that ! " 
Tell them that if their feelings were even 
superlatively great, high, earnest, elevating, 
yet they would none the less need to go to 
Jesus to save their souls, and trust in Him 
entirely to deliver them from sin and death. 
When you find men desiring and waiting for 
deep convictions of sin, tell them that these 
often come later in the order of Christian 
experience. So President Edwards, in his later 
history, testified : " I have had a vastly greater 
sense of xny wickedness and the badness of my 
heart, than ever I had before conversion/' 
The late Dr. Spencer said to a man who came 
to him complaining of the want of feeling : 
" Your heart cannot feel at your bidding.'' 
" What then can I do? 5 ' said the man. "Come 
to Christ now," was the reply ; " we want 



"I HA VE NO FEELING." 89 

faith only, not feeling to bring us to Christ." 
Dr. Spencer then made these five points: 

1. " The Bible never tells you that you 
must feel; but that you must repent and 
believe." 

2. " Your complaint that you can't feel, is 
just an excuse by which your wicked heart 
would justify you for not coming to Christ now." 

3. " This complaint that you can't feel, is the 
complaint of a self-righteous spirit, because 
you look to the desired feeling to commend 
you to God, or to make you fit to come, or to 
enable you to come. 5 ' 

4. " Your complaint is the language of the 
most profound ignorance. To feel would do 
you no good ; devils feel ; lost spirits feel." 

5. " Your complaint that you can't feel 
tends to lead you to a false religion — a religion 
of mere self-righteous feeling. Religion is 
duty." 

The man said, "But, sir, there is feeling 
in religion !" " But," said his teacher, " there 
is duty in religion, and which shall come first? 
You ought to feel: you ought to love God, 
and to grieve that you are so senseless a sin- 
ner." That man soon found his Saviour. 



90 WORDS IN SEASON 

There are those who are at heart Christians 
who also are tempted to say, " I have no feel- 
ing." I have deep sympathy with such ; 
they have proved the hardest cases to deal 
with in all my experience as a pastor. They 
have heard so much of delightful Christian 
experiences that they watch, and pray, and 
wait for the same ecstatic joy; and burdened 
by this anxiety they make it impossible for 
the coveted joy to come to them. They are 
too much given to introspection. The attempt 
to feel thoughts and to comprehend feelings is 
the shortest way to msanity. It is exceedingly 
difficult to deal with such cases, whose malady 
has taken a chronic form. While the Gospel 
is calling to them to look up to Jesus, they 
look only down into themselves, and their 
miseries become deeper and deeper. For any 
man in the inquirer's or Christian's state of 
anxiety to attempt to feel out all their thoughts, 
and to comprehend all their feelings, is one 
of the best roads to insanity. 

My pastoral experience has brought me 
many such cases. One such was a woman, 
whose sad and gloomy face was often before 
me in my study, and whom I fully believed to 



V HA VE NO FEELING? qj 

be a Christian, but she thought herself going 
to hell. I urged her to go out and try to win 
one soul to Christ, as it was then a time of re- 
vival in the neighborhood; she would have 
drawn back, but I insisted on the plea of her 
conscientious duty. She engaged, and suc- 
cessfully, in this endeavor, and I heard no 
more of her troubles. She found joy and 
peace as soon as she ceased nervously to look 
for them, and make that her great business. 

I had another case whose symptoms were 
the same, but the person had not the nerve to 
use'the above remedy. I said. u What would 
satisfy you that you are Christ's?" She said, 
" If I could only feel such joy as Christians 
experience, I would be satisfied I was changed 
in heart." My replv was: " Go home and 
thank God that He has not given you that 
joy, for you would have trusted in that for 
salvation and not Christ." She next day re- 
turned to me rejoicing. I once had a case of 
inherited melancholy, exhibiting intense mor- 
bidness, and all my talk was to no purpose. I 
then tried Dr. Finney Is method with a similar 
case, who went to the individual, saying, " I 
have come to bid you good-bye ; I have too 



92 WORDS IA T SEASON. 

much to do on my hands to look after you 
any further; but first, I would like to know 
what you are going to do ?" He received 
answer, " I shall try to serve God," " What 
then?" " Try to keep on all my life serving 
God." " What then ?" " I shall die." " Then?" 
" I shall go to hell." " What then ?" " I shall 
try to serve God in hell." To this last Dr. 
Finney said : " My friend, the devil won't have 
you there ! — he'll turn you out !" After a mo 
ment's perplexity she said : " I see it all ! I see 
it all!" and went away rejoicing. 

In your coming work, dear friends, exalt 
and honor Jesus Christ. Trust not to your 
own wisdom, skill, tact, but only to the Holy 
Spirit, and you will be successful. 



SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCES OF CON- 
VERSION. 

Rev. A. D. VAIL, D.D. 

The true conversion of a sinful soul must 
ever be one of the grandest proofs of the 
divine origin and life of Christianity. So 
long as God gives to the world frequent 
illustrations of the power of converting 
grace, no form of popular or scientific skep- 
ticism can make way against the appeals of 
the word of God. Genuine conversions are 
the true fruits of a living Church, and that 
Church is most thoroughly apostolic and 
divine which, like the tree of life, bears con- 
tinual fruitage through all monthsand thus 
glorifies God. 

It is a question of great importance, what 
constitutes true scriptural conversion. Surely 
there must be some great misconception on 
the part of multitudes, either as to the nat- 
ure of conversion or as to the fact of their own 
salvation. Our Churches during revivals are 
like the orchards of the Spring-time, full of 
the blossoms of hope and promise, while the 

(93) 



94 WORDS IN- SEA SOX, 

autumn often brings little. perfect fruit. Many 
who profess conversion soon fall back, and 
hundreds who crowd our inquiry-rooms fail to 
go further, and stop short of conversion. 
Where shall we look for the cause of failure ? 
The answer will not be uniform, for it sorne- 
times happens that conversion takes on the 
type and character of the denominational pe- 
culiarities of the Church, or of the revival, 
where the man has been led to Christ. There 
is one great and true standard, one and one 
only test, for all Churches and for all souls, 
the Word of God. 

Let us first consider the scriptural use of 
the word conversion. The precise word is 
not often found in the Bible, but the great root 
idea of it runs through the Scriptures. Con- 
version means a turning around, and the 
Greek word is sometimes translated turn, as 
"a great number believed and turned unto 
the Lord." (Acts u : 21.) The idea is of a 
soul going away from God, and under the 
divine persuasion turning around and walking 
in the opposite way, walking with God. 
"Turn Thou me and I shall be turned." 
(Jer. 31: 18.) "Therefore turn thou to thy 



SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCES OF CONVERSION. 95 

God." (Hos. 12: 6.) "They that turn many 
to righteousness." (Dan. 12: 3.) In every 
case where the word conversion is used, there 
is implied the turning around in the life, as 
" Except ye be converted and become as little 
children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom 
of heaven." (Mat. 18: 3.) " Repent ye there- 
fore, and be converted, that your sins may be 
blotted out." (Acts 3: 19.)" "To open their 
eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, 
and from the power of Satan unto God." 
(Acts 26: 18.) These passages, in a general 
way, indicate the scriptural idea of con- 
version. 

But to give us further and fuller light of 
what is implied, we have recorded in the 
Scripture the conversions of several individ- 
uals. Each of these is a study, and they seem 
to be type cases of the various ways in which 
different men are led to Christ, and of the 
various feelings that accompany different 
cases of conversion. The cases are recorded 
somewhat at length, and in one or other of 
these you 'may find a picture of your own 
conversion. Zaccheus, (Luke 19 : i-xo.) Saul 
of Tarsus, (Acts 9: 3-18; 22: 6-16; 26; 15 



g6 . JVCRBS IX SEA SOX. 

-18.) The Philippian jailor (Acts 16: 23-34.) 
Cornelius, (Acts 10.) The Ethiopian eunuch, 
(i\cts 8 : 26-40.) Lydki, (Acts 16: 13-15.) 

Let us now search the Word of God for a 
full and clear statement of what is implied in 
conversion. Let us consider different illus- 
trations of conversions, and then discover, if 
we can, the great and essential facts in each 
example. It is called" The power of God 
unto salvation to every one that believeth." 
(Rom. 1 : 16.) " Neither is there salvation in 
any other, for there is none other name under 
heaven given among men whereby we must 
be saved." (Acts 4 : 12.) Here the idea is of 
one delivered from a great peril and made 
safe, the radical idea of salvation. Again, 
" Ye who sometime were far off, are made 
nigh by the blood of Christ." (Eph. 2: 13.) 
" Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers 
and foreigners, but fellow citizens w r ith the 
saints and of the household of God.'' ' (Eph. 2 : 
19.) Here is an entire change in the relations 
of the soul to God. Again, " Awake thou 
that sleepest and arise from the dead, and 
Christ shall give thee light." (Eph. 5: 14) 
" And )'ou hath he quickened who were dead 



SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCES OF CONVERSION. 



97 



in trespasses and sins." (Eph. 2:1.) This im- 
plies a wonderful change, and such as could 
only be wrought by God. But to what life are 
we raised ? We are " born of the Spirit.' 5 (John 
3 : 8.) We become " the sons of God," "which 
were horn not of blood, nor of the will of the 
flesh, nor of the will of man, but ol God." 
(John 1 : 12, 13.) We become new creatures, 
" old things are passed away ; behold all 
things are become new." (2 Cor. 5: 17.) 
Here we have the passages that set forth 
most clearly the nature of conversion, and 
give us its essential elements. 

It will be found that there are two great 
ideas implied in conversion. (I.) The pardon 
of the sinner. (2.) The great change of the 
sinner's nature that we call regeneration, or 
"the new heart" (Ezek. 36: 26), or " the new 
man" (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10). The sinner 
stands condemned before God, and he cannot 
become a child of God until his sins are for- 
given. Hence we find God declaring His 
willingness to " blot out our transgressions."(Is* i 
43 : 2 5)> " to remove our transgressions from 
us, as far as the east is from the west" (Ps. 
103 : 12). si The Lord, the Lord God. merciful 

7 



gg WORDS IN SEASON. 

and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in 
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thou- 
sands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and 
sin." (Ex. 34: 6, 7). And now we find that the 
New Testament urges the idea of repentance 
for sin, and connects pardon with repentance. 
'• Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at 
hand.'' (Matt. 3 : 2). "Repent ye therefore and 
be converted that your sins may be blotted out/ ' 
(Acts 3 : 19 ; Mark 1 : 14, 15 ; Acts 2 : 37, 38). 
And when the sinner is pardoned he is said to 
be "justified." "Therefore being justified by 
faith, we have peace with God through our 
Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5 : 1). " Being 
justified freely by His grace through the re- 
demption that is in Christ Jesus." (Rom. 3 : 24). 
This pardon, then, is freely given to us of 
God, through faith in Jesus Christ. " For 
by grace are ye saved through faith, and that 
not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." 
(Eph. 2:8). 

By the free grace of God the sinner is for- 
given. But for all this, he will at once fall 
into his old sins, and that continually, unless 
God shall work some great change in the sin- 
ner's nature, so that he will come to hate sin 



SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCES OF CONVERSION, gg 

and love righteousness. This change is the 
second factor of conversion. " For in Christ 
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, 
nor uncircumcision, but a new creature/' (Gal. 
6: 15). "Therefore if any man be in Christ 
he is a new creature." (2 Cor. 5:17). "A new 
heart also will I give you and a new spirit 
will I put within you. And I will take away 
the stony heart out of your flesh. And I will 
put my Spirit within you and cause you to 
walk in my statutes." (Ezek. 36: 26, 27 ; Col. 
1 : 13, 14 ; 2 : 13). Sin has now become u ex- 
ceeding sinful." (Rom. 7 : 13). " Whosoever 
is born of God, doth not commit sin." (1 John 
3:9); that is, he does not wilfully and know- 
ingly disobey Gcd. Thus do we find that the 
idea of conversion implies (1) the pardon of 
the sinner, an act that passes in the mind of 
God ; and (2) regeneration, a result wrought in 
the sinner's nature by the power of God. Or, 
as St. Paul combines the ideas, " Who hath 
delivered us from the power of darkness and 
hath translated us into the kingdom of His 
clear Son; in whom we have redemption 
through His blood even the forgiveness of 
sins." (Ccl 1 : 13, 14). 



100 WORDS IN SEASON. 

This work is represented as a real and 
thorough one. When God forgives the sin- 
ner, it is clone fully and at once. It is an en- 
tire washing away of guilt," Though your sins 
be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow " 
(Isa. 1:18); " the blood of Jesus Christ his 
Son cleanseth us from all sin." (i John i : 7). 
So, too, the work of regeneration is a real and 
full work. We who are dead are brought to 
life ; we pass from aliens to full citizens, 
from enemies to friends. There is a real new 
creation. But we are not born into the ma- 
turity of Christian grace and strength. The 
new-born soul is complete as is a new-born 
babe, that must grow up " unto a perfect 
man, unto the measure of the stature of the 
fulness of Christ." (Eph. 4: 13). We have the 
germ of every grace, the possibilities of every 
virtue, but not the developed holiness of the 
tried and victorious saint. A " new nature " 
is enthroned within, and ruling over the " old 
nature. " The new strong currents of the 
heart set toward God, and the converted man 
freely and joyously begins to do the will of 
God. 

John Bun j an pictures the pilgrim at the 



SCXIP TURAL E VIDENCES OF CONVERSION. \ q \ 

moment the burden of his sins rolls off, as met 
by three shining ones who saluted him with 
" Peace be to thee." " The first said, ' Thy sins 
be forgiven thee;' the second stripped him 
of his rags and clothed him with change of 
raiment." The third gave him a roll with a 
seal upon it, which he was to look at by the 
way, and give in at last at the celestial gate. 
This roll beautifully represents the confidence, 
the divine assurance given to the convert of his 
acceptance with God. It seems to be evident 
from the Word of God, that the Christian has 
a right to the " assurance of faith." (Heb. 10: 
22.) We are exhorted to il make our calling 
and election sure." (2 Pete 1 : 10.) We are to 
be " ready always to give an answer to every 
man thatasketh you a reason of the hope that 
is 111 you." (1 Pet. 3: 15.) There must be, 
then, good and scriptural evidences of conver- 
sion. What are they ? 

Having determined what conversion is, it 
will be a short and easy task to indicate the 
scriptural evidences of this great change. 
There are three distinct lines of evidence, 
either of which ought to be satisfactory. We 
may not find them all at once in the same indi- 



X 02 it ORDS IN SEA SOX. 

vidual ; but they may be found, one to-day, and 
another to-morrow, for each one implies the 
others, in the same sense that a part of the 
spectrum implies the absent colors that belong 
to the beam of light. 

ist. The first line of evidence is the "assur- 
ance of faith," or the assurance of our own 
consciousness that we do deliberately and 
honestly u believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.'" 
We are saved not through our feeling that 
we are saved, but we "are saved through 
faith." (Eph. 2: 8.) The soul accepts and 
rests in the fact of salvation, because God 
hath said, "He that believeth in the Son hath 
everlasting life " (John 3 : 36), not that he shall 
feel that he hath everlasting life. (So also 
John 5: 24 and 6: 47.) "Look unto me and 
be ye saved . . . for I am God and there is 
none else," (Isa. 45 : 22.) It does not say, 
Look and you will feel that you are saved, but 
Look and be saved. Because of the soul's con- 
fidence in the Word of God, it comes to such 
an assurance that " we know that we have 
eternal life." (1 John 5: 13.) (John 20: 31.) 
The seeking soul sooner or later comes to see 
that we are saved when we simply trust in 



SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCES OF CONVERSION 103 

Christ to save us, but the "full assurance of 
faith " does not come until we believe in the 
sincerity and reality of our own belief or faith ; 
then we may "draw near with a true heart in 
full assurance of faith . . . and hold fast the 
profession of our faith without wavering", for 
he is faithful that promised." (Heb. 10 : 2 2, 23.} 
" He that believeth on the Son of God hath 
the witness in himself." (1 John 5 : 10.) He 
knows that he has faith, 

2d. The second line of scriptural evidence 
will be found in the witness of the Holy Spirit 
to the fact of our conversion. "Because ye 
are sons, Gocl hath sent forth the Spirit of 
His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, 
Father." (Gal. 4: 6,) "For ye have not re- 
ceived the spirit of bondage again to fear, but 
ye have received the spirit of adoption where- 
by we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself 
beareth witness with our spirit, that we 
are the children of God." (Rom. 8: 15, 16.) 
We understand by the witness of the Spirit, 
not a spiritual conclusion on our part that we 
are Christians, but an impression made on our 
hearts immediately and directly by the Spirit 
of God, that we are His children. This often 



104 



WORDS IN SEASON. 



comes in the moment of conversion, and the 
soul passes at once into a great light and joy. 
The ground of it is in the feeling of our adop- 
( tion into the family of God, and we sing ; 

" My God is reconciled, 

His pardoning- voice I hear ? 
He owns me for His child, 

I can no longer fear. 
With confidence I now draw nigh. 
And Father, Abba, Father, cry. 

This divine impression of the Spirit is else- 
where called the " earnest of the Spirit." (2 
Cor. 5 : 5.) " After that ye believed, ye were 
sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.'* 
(Eph. 1 : 13,) (2 Cor. 1 : 22.) The incoming 
of this glorious experience is one of the sweet- 
est and most satisfying that is given to the 
child of God. This earnest of the Spirit is 
the first installment of that confidence and joy 
which we now have as the sons of God, whose 
glorious reflection shall come, when " we shall 
be like him, for we shall see him as he is." 
(1 John 3: 1, 2.) 

3d. The third line of evidence of our con- 
version will be found in those passages 



SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCES OF CONVERSION. 105 

that speak of the fruits of the Spirit. We 
find in our hearts new feelings, and a dis- 
position to new activities, ""the first fruits of 
the Spirit. 5 ' (Rom. 8 : 23.) These are "love, 
j >y, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
faith, meekness, temperance." (Gal. 5: 22, 23.) 
These fruits are evidence that the soul has 
been grafted into the living One, Christ Jesus. 
" He that abideth in me and I in him, the 
same bringeth forth much fruit, for without 
me ye can do nothing." (John 15: 5.) The 
pardoned sinner is delivered from " the fear of 
death." (Heb. 2: 15.) His sense of guilt is 
removed and there is " now no condemnation 
to them which are in Christ Jesus." (Rom. 
8 : 1.) He has "peace with God " (Rom. 5 : 1), 
for he is no longer fighting against God. He 
has " the peace of God," for the Saviour says, 
" My peace I give unto you." (John 14 : 27,) 
He has " light in the Lord." (Eph. 5 : 8.) He 
has now a new joy, "joy in God through our 
Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5: 11.) He "re- 
joices in hope of the glory of God." (Rom. 
5 : 2.) He has "joy and peace in believing," 
(Rom. 15: 13,) and sometimes he is able to 
" rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of 



IOS WORDS IX SEASON-. 

glory." (i Pet i : 8.) He is conscious of 
being 'Med by the Spirit of God, and so is a 
son of God." (Rom. 8: 14.) He now delights 
in the Word of God, and the book has, for the 
first time, a divine charm, and as a " new-born 
babe," he desires "the sincere milk of the 
Word, that ye may grow thereby." (1 Peter 
2: 2.) He is sure that he "knows" God, 
because he " keeps his commandments." (1 
John 2 : 3.) He has an entirely new feeling 
toward Christians, and now loves communion 
with them ; and he reioices to " know that we 
have passed from death unto life, because we 
love the brethren." (1 John 3 : 14.) And now 
God has given him u a good hope." (2 Thes. 
2 : 16.) His " hope malceth not ashamed." 
(Rom. 5:5.) He " rejoices in hope." (Heb. 3:6.) 
He has Christ within, u the hope of glory." 
(Col. 1 : 27.) His hope is "as an anchor of the 
soul, both sure and steadfast." (Heb. 6: 19.) 
These are the evidences given to the believer 
that he is in Christ, and that Christ liveth and 
abideth in him. 

There is great reason to fear th?t many do 
not give to the scriptural evidences of conver- 
sion that importance which they deserve, Chris- 






SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCES OF CONVERSION. \oj 

tians are so anxious to lead men into the 
Church, that they seek to comfort those whom 
God hath not comforted, and to persuade them 
that they are converted when they have not 
even sincerely repented of their sins. As a re- 
sult, there are many in our churches who are 
not in Christ They have trusted in partial and 
insufficient evidences of conversion. They 
have repented, but not with a godly sorrow. 
They have had conviction of sin, but they 
have not forsaken all of their sins. They .have 
reformed their outward life, but there has been 
no heart-cleansing. They have been "seekers," 
but they have never u found" salvation. The}' 
have received the sacraments, but they have 
never received Christ. These are men like Bun- 
yan's Formalist, who, u in order to make a short 
cutof it, climb over the wall," instead of coming 
in by the more difficult gate of repentance. 
They say we have plenty of u custom " for 
that way of getting in. And u if we are in, 
we are in." Alas, for the thousands who are 
led astray by the example of Formalist, and 
who hive come to doubt the reality of genuine 
converson. 

On the other hand, there are some sincere 



108 WORDS IN SEASON'. 

souls that have evidences that are sufficient; 
but they are not satisfying. They do not lack 
any essential scriptural evidence, but they 
have not had * an experience like some dear 
Christian friend.' They, have had no deep 
sorrow, no awful sense of sin before coming 
to Christ. Neither did Zaccheus or the Ethio- 
pian Eunuch. There has been no very great 
change in their outward life. But they were 
like the young man whom Jesus loved, that 
lacked only one thing, and that was in his 
heart rather than life. There has been no 
great upheaval of soul as in Saul and the Phil- 
ippian jailor. But Lydia and the Eunuch were 
not so brought into the Kingdom. They have 
never known any sudden answer of prayer, 
and they cannot point to the hour or day when 
they were converted. What matters it, so 
long as the Sun of Righteousness has risen upon 
us, and we are walking in the light! Their 
feelings are inconstant and often sad. But to 
be a Christian is to serve God, and to love 
Christ is to keep His commandments, without 
regard to our feelings. They cannot forget 
their past sins. But the truest penitence follows 
conversion, and we s^e the ' exceeding sinful- 



SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCES OF CONVERSION'. 



IO9 



ness " of our pardoned sins. Timid, doubting 
souls should rest in the fruits of the Spirit as 
all-sufficient evidence of their conversion. 

Assurance, confidence in God and in our con- 
version, is the privilege of believers. We 
are strong and happy and useful as we believe 
that we are the sons of God. " These things 
have I written unto you that 'believe on the 
name of the Son of God, that ye may know 
that ye have eternal life." (1 John 5 : 13.) " For 
I know whom I have believed, and am per- 
suaded that he is able to keep that which I 
have committed unto him against that day.'' 
(2 Tim. 2 : 12.) (Rom. 8 : 38, 39.) 



"WHAT GOOD WORKS CAN I DO?" 
Rev. THOMAS D. ANDERSON, D.D. 

In John 6: 28, 29, we read, " Then said they 
unto Him, What shall we do that we might 
work the works of God ? Jesus answered and 
said unto them, This is the work of God that 
ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." 

Accepting' this question as sincerely asked, 
we are guided by Him in our treatment of 
persons who meet us with the same inquiry 
and in the same spirit. In such a spirit we 
should believe the question to be asked us, 
unless there shall be evidence to the contrary. 
In this light we do not so much consider the 
words, u What good works can I do? " as ut- 
tering an objection, as that they voice an 
anxious perplexity of the aroused soul. They 
give expression rather to a state of mind 
which, unless scripturally guided, may result 
in wrong views, than to thoughts which have 
already crystalized into error. 

Guided by the example of Christ himself, 
we will be careful, first, that while guarding 
(no) 



" WHA T GOOD WORKS CAX I DO? n m 

against one error we do not inculcate its op- 
posite. In no case must the sinner under the 
influence of the Holy Spirit be remanded to 
the inactivity of death. He must not be made 
to feel that indifference is duty. Nor must 
the throbbings of conviction in an intelligent 
and free spirit be mocked by the false demand 
for mere passivity. While the Divine Spirit 
is stimulating the soul to the exercise of all its 
powers let no one dare to drug it with the 
fatal opiate, " You can do nothing." Remem- 
ber the Spirit effects regeneration in our 
world through convictions of sin,- of righteous- 
ness, and of judgment, and in response to the 
earnest cry of the convicted, ^ What must I 
do?" has He in no instance inspired the in- 
junction, " Do nothing." 

Turn with me in proof to four instances — 
Acts 2:38: " Peter said unto them (the in- 
quirers on the day of Pentecost), Repent and 
be baptized every one of you in the name of 
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye 
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." 
Acts 16:29: Paul and Silas reply to the agi- 
tated jailer in the Philippian prison, " Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be 



112 WORDS IN SEASON. 

saved/' Acts 9:6: " And he (Saul) trembling 
and astonished said, Lord what wilt thou have 
me to do? And the Lord said unto him, 
Arise and go into the city and it shall be told* 
thee what thou must do." In the passage we 
have already read, and from which more 
especially we are taking our lesson from the 
great Teacher himself — " Jesus said unto them, 
This is the work of God that ye believe on 
Him whom He hath sent." He thus preserves 
what is true in the consciousness which asks 
the question by retaining in His answer the 
word " work." There is a work which lavs 
out no performances, discards all human 
services, and is absolutely devoid of merit, yet 
enlists every exercise of the mind, and concen- 
trates all the force of the will. The soul is 
not reduced to inaction, it lies not in a torpor, 
but kindled by the quickening power of the 
Holy Ghost, conscious of new impressions, 
swayed by divine motives, with desire at its 
utmost tension, the will regnant, and self for- 
ever abandoned, it falls into the arms of the 
Saviour with the significant cry, " Lord, I 
believe." 

We are taught by these words of Jesus not 



WHA T GOOD WORKS CAN I DO? 



1*3 



merely how to guard the inquirer from error, 
but also how to guide him unto the truth. 
" This is the work of God that ye believe on 
Him whom He hath sent." In this answer 
we see that " work " and " faith " are made 
synonymous, and we are thus assured of the 
only sense in which u doing " and " work v are 
applicable to the doing or effort of the awak- 
ened sinner. Belief or trust in Christ removes 
the ground of a sinner's salvation entirely out 
of himself. This settles definitely this point. 
He can depend on nothing for his justification 
that originates within himself, or of which he 
is in any way a part The object of his confi- 
dence is another. The work which secures 
his release from condemnation is the work of 
another. The merit that atones for his sin 
belongs solely to Jesus. All is finished, and 
can be neither increased nor diminished by 
anything the sinner can do or leave undone. 

Again, this salvation can avail for the sinner 
only through faith; whatever, then, lessens 
the necessity of, or interferes with, faith, en- 
dangers his salvation. Every attempt to 
make himself better because he regards him- 
self too sinful to be saved by Christ, under- 
8 



1 14 WORDS IN SEASON, 

values the sufficiency of Redemption, and so 
weakens confidence, The employment of the 
means of grace, such as reading - the Bible, 
prayer, and meditation as a moral preparation, 
detracts from the glory of Christ as a Saviour 
to the uttermost, and thus despoils faith. All 
outward submission to gospel ordinances, 
formal connection with a church, all vows and 
fastings, and mortifications of the flesh before 
exercising, or in lieu of, simple faith, are not 
only hindrances to conversion, but tend 
directly to resist the Spirit, who is commis- 
sioned to take only the things of Jesus and 
show t'hem unto us. 

The exercise of the sinner seeking his sal- 
vation is the exercise of trust in Jesus. His 
only work is to abandon self, to disown as ut- 
terly sinful all his efforts at reform, to refuse 
as blasphemous every attempt to make him- 
self worthy of the divine favor, to decline the 
sacerdotal mediation of a human priesthood, 
to conform to no external ritual of prepara- 
tion, and in his actual, present state of sin and 
wretchedness to flee to the refuge of the 
u Cleft Rock" saying: 

" In my hands no price I bring", 
Simply to Thy Cross I cling/* 



"WHAT GOOD WORKS CAN I DO?" 



US 



Some, however, may be represented by this 
inquiry who are really troubled with errone- 
ous views. They may have an impression, 
more or less distinct, that something is re- 
quired of them before conversion to make 
their character more acceptable to God, or in 
some way to atone for their sin. Such should 
be taught that both for character and pardon 
they must depend on "Jesus only." Christ is 
qualified for being a Redeemer by His divine 
holiness. Because "in Him is no sin;" He 
is the Beloved of the Father. The guilty can 
be accepted before God only in the person 
and character of their substitute. If any vir- 
tue of theirs were required to be added, from 
their nature it could be only imperfect, thus 
the whole substitution would be impaired. 
Therefore it is indispensable that Christ's per- 
fect obedience must be left unmarred by the 
addition of any claim of merit or virtue in the 
sinner. 

The same line of thought is applicable to 
the other error, that the sinner by good works 
can make some atonement for his sins. The 
efficacy of Christ's propitiation is owing to 
the sinlessness of His person. Without sin, 



H6 WORDS IN SEASON. 

He was absolutely without condemnation. 
Within the infinitude of His holy nature as 
God and man, He could receive and (allow 
the expression) exhaust the penalty due for 
transgression. If now to avail himself of this 
propitiation the guilty be required to add 
something himself, then that which were added, 
from the nature of atonement, must be of the 
same infinite purity. But this by the very 
terms of the statement is impossible, for the 
guilty cannot do what is holy. To attempt, 
then, to make some atonement for his own sins 
instead of lightening the sinner's burden, only 
vitiates in his estimation the all-sufficiency of 
Christ and thus he deprives himself of his only 
hope — denying its sufficiency. 

How important to bring to bear on this 
class of inquirers such passages of Scripture 
as express the alone efficacy of Christ's righte- 
ousness, and that pardon can come only by the 
death of Jesus. The Holy Spirit presents the 
true character of our own good works in the 
language of Isa. 64 : 6 : " All our righteous- 
nesses are as filthy rags." The ground of 
salvation is explicitly stated in Titus 3:5: 
" Not by works of righteousness which we 



"WHAT GOOD WORKS CAN I DO?" 



Hf 



have done, but according- to His mere} 7 He 
saved us." In Phil. 3 : 9, we ascertain that 
the sinner's only glory, as well as safety, is to 
"be found in Him not having mine (his) own 
righteousness, which is of the law, but that 
which is through the faith of Christ, the 
righteousness which is of Gocl by faith." 
Very clearly in Rom. 4 : 5, is simple faith 
set forth as the only requirement of the sin- 
ner : "But to him that worketh not, but be- 
lieveth on Him who justifieth the ungodly, 
his faith is counted for righteousness." With 
reference to pardon, we read in Col. 1 : 14, 
" In whom we have redemption through His 
blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Again 
in 1 John 1:7: "And the blood of Jesus 
Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.' , 

Lastly, let me commend to your special 
study and use that grand statement contained 
in Rom. 3 : 25, 26, 23 : " Whom God hath set 
forth to be a propitiation through faith in His 
blood to declare His righteousness for the re- 
mission (passing over) of sins that are past 
through the forbearance of God. To declare, 
I say, at this time His righteousness: that He 
might be just, and the Justifier of Him that 



1 1 8 WORDS IN SEA SON'. 

believcth in Jesus. Therefore we conclude, 
that a man is justified by faith without the 
deeds of the law." 

Finally, if any through temptation or wil- 
fulness still insist on the necessity that they 
should do something, that shall make them 
more acceptable, before coming to Christ, 
they should be shown the utter hopelessness 
in which the impossibility of accomplishing 
it leaves them. Neither their state of mind 
nor their objection makes human argument 
with them proper. The authority of God's 
own words should be hurled, in all their 
naked force, against this stronghold of unbe- 
lief. When the awakened soul, under the 
unequivocal declaration of divine truth, is 
made to feel the absolute despair of his con- 
dition, he will flee from his false refuge to the 
arms of Jesu*s. Let the words of Rom. 8: 7, 
8, ring in his ears : " The carnal mind is en- 
mity against God : it is not subject to the law 
of God, neither indeed can be ; so then 
they that are in the flesh cannot please God " 
and the ground sinks beneath him ! He must 
escape or be lost. 

Every act by which the uniegenerat© man 



«WHA T GOOD WORKS CAN I DO? 



119 



delays his coming to Christ is but an additional 
sin, enhancing the divine displeasure. God 
commands but one thing. With this only is 
• He pleased. To it alone has He appended 
His promise of pardon. "Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ/' Up to this point, do 
what he may, the sinner is unforgiven. But 
when he casts himself on the Crucified, 

saying, 

" Just as I am, and waiting not 
To rid my soul of one dark blot, 1 ' 

then, although his "sins be as scarlet, they 
shall be as white as snow ; though they be red 
like crimson, they shall be as wool." (Isa. 
1 : 18.) 

A time will come for his u good works," 
when his salvation is secured by Christ 
through faith, with no admixture of human 
merit; when having past from death unto 
life he stands complete in Jesus ; when the 
grace of the Holy Spirit flows through his re- 
generated affections and will, then, and only 
then, will his gratitude find expression in the 
services of love. " For by grace are ye saved 
through faith ; and that not of yourselves : it is 
the gift of God ; not of works, lest any man 



120 WORDS IiV SEASON. 

should boast. For we are His workmanship, 
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, 
which God hath before ordained that wc 
should walk in them/' (Eph. 2: 8, 9, 10.) 



IMPORTANCE OF CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP, 
Rev. HOWARD CROSBY, D.D. 

If Paul counted himself happy when stand- 
ing in the presence of King Agrippa, because 
he was able intelligently to judge of the mat- 
ter spoken of by the apostle, so am I most 
happy to come before you as a body of 
Christian workers, to present my views of this 
subject, knowing that you are not unfamiliar 
with its important bearing on the work in 
which we are about to engage. 

By Church-membership I mean a formal 
and visible connection with an organized body 
of Christian believers; (not with an organized 
Church, which is an important distinction.) If 
w r e could imagine a Church constituted in 
any large measure of notorious blacklegs, we 
would not desire young converts to connect 
themselves therewith. The same argument 
obtains, of course with less of power, should 
we decline to recommend the young con- 
vert to unite with any corrupt Church; 

(121) 



122 WORDS IN SEA SOA r , 

therefore I define a Church in the view of 
our subject, to be an organized body of Chris- 
tian believers. In so saying, I do not advise 
you to introduce into the inquiry-room the 
question of denominationalism, though you 
may have your own views on that subject, for 
if ever Satan appeared as an angel of light, 
then has it been in the midst of the excite- 
ment engendered by the spirit of denomina- 
tionalism, doing more to thwart the great 
cause of Christ, and 'the prosperity of His 
kingdom among men by sectarian dissension 
and difference, than ever he did bv the 
management of any boldly-pronounced oppo- 
sition to the true Church. Any organization 
of those holding the faith of Jesus Christ as 
the Son of God is a Church in the sense in 
which I present this word to you to-night; 
and it is our duty to advise all converts to 
connect themselves with some organized 
Church. 

We will find converted persons presenting 
to us a variety of difficulties which they enter- 
tain on this point, not rightly discriminating 
between the duty of joining the Church, and 
of seeking conversion. Pastors often have 



IMPORTANCE OF CII URCH-MEMJERSHIP. v2 \ 

such an experience in talking- with those who 
do not join the Church. The answers such 
give to the inquiry why they are not Church 
members, are various, but not wise. In 
countries where there is a State Church, and 
where, at a certain age, all persons are brought 
into Church-membership, the work of the 
Holy Spirit, in converting the soul, is con- 
founded, very naturally, with the process by 
which such persons are brought into the 
Church. Some years since a Greek monk 
came to connect himself with my Church, to 
whom I was obliged to say, " You have not 
the first idea of repentance, and of a change 
of heart." M Why ! " he exclaimed, " I do my 
uerdvoia (change of heart) every morning and 
evening," meaning that he said his "Our 
Father " twice daily. It were strange indeed 
if here in the heart of a Christian population, 
where Church-going is an immemorial custom, 
and a pure gospel is preached, people were to 
make such a mistake, or exhibit such igno- 
rance, and consider simple Church connection 
and the approach to the Lord's table tanta- 
mount to the great moral step out of unbelief 
into faith, out of self and into Christ. 



1 24 WORDS AV SEA SO.V. 

Suppose the inquirer were to say to you, " I 
grant that Church-membership is a good 
thing, but cannot a man be a Christian 
without it?" Of course one could be a man 
even if he were without hands and feet,but such 
is not a desirable style of manhood ; a monk 
in his cell on the mountain, may be a Christian, 
but he is a poor sort of one ; and such 
are not examples of the Christian according 
to the type set forth in the Word of God. 
Faith in Christ Jesus only is requisite for 
membership in His visible Church, and noth- 
ing may be added to that as the simple 
condition. But the same scriptures sa}% 
"Add to your faith" (2 Pet. 1: 5,) and then 
comes a long catalogue of graces, and the first 
named is " virtue," that is strength of Chris- 
tian character, and the only way any one can 
become a strong Christian, and be assured of a 
true spiritual manhood, is by union with his fel- 
lows ; and so only can a converted person make 
his Christianity properly tell for Jesus by stand- 
ing firm in the heavenly phalanx, and moving 
onward with it against the common enemy, 
There are always some stragglers with an army 
but they, add nothing to its efficiency, and a 



IMPORTANCE OF CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP. \ 2 ^ 

man fighting on his own hook, independently, 
does not do as much for the cause he espouses 
as though he fought under the eye and word 
of the commander in the ranks of the regu- 
lated army. A negative and a positive 
scripture come to our hand at this point; the 
negative is : u Be ye not unequally yoked 
together with unbelievers, for what fellowship 
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and 
what communion hath light with darkness?" 
(2 Cor. 6: 14). If one is a believer he should 
live like believers, join himself to them, 
or else he will become like the unbelievers 
with whom he is associated. The positive 
Scripture is this: "Let us consider one 
another to provoke unto love and good 
works, not forsaking the assembling of our- 
selves together as the manner of some is," 
(Heb. 10: 24, 25); this does not mean the 
coming together without organization as a mob, 
but in an efCKArj^la, which means an organized 
assembly, a visibly working Church. Present 
to the inquirer this command of God, that the 
question is one of duty, not an option, and the 
Master has by His word laid on His saved 
one this obligation, which no one can Safely 



126 WORDS IN SEASOiW 

slight. It is only in the path of obedience that 
we can expect to receive a blessing. God 
gives peculiar grace in connection with each 
act of obedience, and the necessity of Church- 
membership is a principle of His gracious 
government. 

What is to be gained by Church-member- 
ship? i. The Church member has a safe- 
guard which can be had in no other way; 
out of the Church (though a believer), he is 
identified with unbelievers, and it were nat- 
ural for him to gravitate to their ways; his 
love to Christ will grow cold, and his con- 
stant communication with merely moral, re- 
fined, unchristian, worldly minds is full of 
deceitful and insidious snares to his soul ; 
and the more moral such association may 
be, the more fatal are its dangers ; for he 
will be less and less on his guard against 
the spirit of unbelief. . He will mingle with 
the world without speaking of his Christian 
hope, and then come to the neglect of the 
thought of Jesus, and finally abandon his 
Saviour who found him in sin and released 
him from the chains which he has again 
sought. Church-membership is a safe-guard ; 



IMPORTANCE OF CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP. 



127 



but it is not a perfect one, for if I want to 
go to the theatre, or lead a life of frivolity 
and gaiety, I can quote the example of hun- 
dreds of mere Church members. 

Another reason : 2. In Church-membership 
the soul finds strong encouragement to spir- 
itual growth, to grow into the mighty ad- 
vantages Christ redeemed it to obtain. Away 
from these encouragements the spiritual life 
will become more or less withered, instead of 
being luxuriant, tropical ; we might say, with- 
out the advantages offered in the Church the 
soul's growth will be a sorry one, perhaps a 
backward one; and it will find the duties of a 
Christian, instead of promoting its highest 
enjoyment, a weariness and a burden, and find 
itself, in spite of all its doctrines, a laboring 
legalist, instead of being a strong, bright, 
triumphant Christian. This were the natural 
result of so keeping oneself separate from the 
organized Church. 

Another reason : 3. Not only that the be- 
liever may grow in joyful experiences, (and 
Christian life is brimful of these, God be 
praised !) but he will be able as in no other 
way to fight the common enemy of God and 



128 WORDS IN SEA SOX. 

souls. A mere independent fighter in the 
great battle, attempting a guerrilla warfare 
single-handed, . will find more than his 
match in the ever-wary and watchful enemy, 
by whom he will soon be picked up and car- 
ried off a helpless prisoner. Only in the 
regular line of battle can he expect success, 
where the assurance of the very tread of faith- 
ful comrades on either side will be his in- 
centive to noble doing. 

You can show the inquirer the protection 
he needs and the power of piety he must exer- 
cise, and which are possible for him to acquire 
only as he obeys the commands of the Lord 
Jesus, and as he binds himself to the life and 
the work of His people. 

I have only one other thought to lay before 
you to-night, for I must necessarily be brief. 

This point has relation to the real cause of 
objection to a union with the visible Church, 
lying in the minds of many 7 , and hidden from 
themselves. They do not desire openly to 
take their stand for Jesus because they love 
the world, and this secret impulse is the true 
source of all the excuses already' suggested. 
The real difficulty is not intellectual or spir- 



IMPORTANCE OF CHURCH-MEM BERSHIP. I2 q 

itual, but that the heart is still rebellious. 
" If any man lov r e the world, the love of the 
Father is not in him." (i John 2 : 15.) The 
reason for not joining the Church is dishonest, 
is not sincere; but, thereby, the inquirer is 
seeking- a pretext to remain unconverted. 
While seeking the spiritual consolation and 
hope of a Christian, he is conjuring up a 
device to avoid his responsibilities. Such an 
inquirer once sent for me: a modest, quiet 
young lady, under a strong impulse to seek 
her Saviour. I found her much agitated in 
regard to her salvation, so that she could not 
think of anything else. I tried to fathom her 
difficulties by a series of questions, which, in 
military phrase, might be called " skirmishing," 
and at length discovered the trouble. She 
was a beautiful dancer, and extremelv fond ot 
the practice; this was the goddess set up and 
worshipped ; she was serving the world in 
that particular form. I said, " My child, you 
will never find peace in Jesus till you are 
ready for His sake to give up dancing." (I 
would not have you suppose 1 consider this a 
rule for universal observance, any more than 
that other, i4 Sell all that thou hast and give to 
9 



130 



WORDS IN SEA SOX, 



the poor;" but here it evidently applied, it 
was, as I said, "give up your dance or die.") 
It seemed as if all the devils in hell inspired 
that young soul, as after a moment of terrible 
suspense, she said: "If my choice must be 
between Jesus Christ and my dancing, I'll 
take the dance, and let Jesus go ! " She was 
bold enough to face and assume the respon- 
sibility, which so many who profess to seek 
Christ would shirk and evade. But I must 
not close without giving you the sequel to 
this experience. I went home and prayed for 
that soul, and in my weekly prayer-meeting 
which was in the evening of the same day, I 
spoke of this scene, and asked that her case 
might be made a subject of earnest prayer, 
and that prayer for her would be continued 
at the home altars of my people. In two 
weeks from that time, the subject of our 
prayers was rejoicing in Jesus, and she has 
lived to faithfully serve her Master. 



MOTIVE POWER OF THE CHRISTIAN 

LIFE. 

Rev. R. S. MacARTHUR. 

You were startled when you heard Dr. 
Crosby speak of the case of that young girl. 
I have known a case very like it, where the 
love of money was the trap laid by Satan for 
an immortal soul. The man, under my de- 
mands to forsake this idol, asked for a week in 
which to make a final decision; at the week's 
end he came to me under an evident, but sup- 
pressed, excitement, and with a dread calmness 
communicated his decision: u I will hold on 
to my money till death ; and if Jesus and 
heaven must go, then they must go!'' O 
how much men need the enlightenment of the 
Holy Spirit. 



In my remarks this evening on " Motive 
Power of the Christian Life," I shall not dis- 
tinguish between the motives which should 
induce persons to become Christians, and 
those which should induce Christians to labor 

(13 1) 



1 3 2 WORDS /AT SEA SOA\ 

for the conversion of others. Substantially 
the same motives should affect both. 

I. We need to have some proper concep- 
tion of the value of a human soul. This con- 
ception may be obtained from a variety of 
considerations. The value of the soul is seen 
in what it has accomplished. All that is great 
in science and art, in literature and sculpture, 
is but an embodiment and actualization of the 
thoughts that dwell in the human soul. The 
sublime songs of the old heathen poets, the 
majestic strains of Milton in " Paradise Lost/' 
and the sad sighings of England's laureate in 
the " In Memoriam," are but the mirrored 
thoughts of their deepest souls. The crea- 
tions of the genius of an Angelo or Raphael, 
the immortal symphonies of a Handel and a 
Mozart, are but the varied language. of the 
God-given soul. Mr. Spurgeon has called 
the stars God's brilliant thoughts, and the 
flowers His beautiful thoughts. We may say 
with literal truth, that the whole world was 
once a thought of God. He spoke, and that 
thought was embodied in the physical crea- 
tion. The engine that thunders across the 
plain, harnessed to its freighted cars, was once 



MOTIVE POWER OF THE CHRISTIA X LIFE. x 33 

a human thought. We might particularize 
the inventions and mechanical arts, and all the 
forces which have made the civilization of the 
world great, and we should find that all are 
realizations of thoughts born in the human 
soul. Is not that which has accomplished so 
much, that which distinguishes us from lower 
orders of creation, and which binds us to 
angels and God, of infinite value? What a 
motive we have here to labor for the salvation 
of the soul. 

Let us pass from what the soul has done to 
what it is in itself: immortal. The Creator is 
greater than the creature ; the soul is more 
than its own creations. The immortality of 
the soul is taught in the Old Testament Scrip- 
tures. Many passages teach clearly that body 
and soul are separated at death, each return- 
ing whence it came. But if there be found 
any vagueness in the teachings of the Old, all 
disappears before the noon-day brightness of 
the New Testament revelation. "The testi- 
mony of our Lord ... is now made man- 
ifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus 
Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath 
brought life and immortality to light through 



134 WORDS IN SEASON. 

the Gospel." (2 Tim. 1 : 8, 10.) This doctrine 
is not here taught as a new doctrine ; but new 
light from the Son of Righteousness is poured 
upon this glorious old doctrine. This revela- 
tion complements the judgments of the univer- 
sal consciousness of mankind. However much 
men in all ages of the world's history may 
have differed on other points of religious be- 
lief, they have agreed with remarkable unan- 
imity as to the immortality of the soul. The 
subtle Greek, immersed in the abstractions 
of philosophy ; the haughty Roman, on the 
field of battle ; the gloomy Norseman, plun- 
dering his neighbors ; all the nations of the 
East, whether worshipping the sun, or idols 
made by their own hands ; the American In- 
dian, roaming his native forests, all believed in 
the immortality of the soul. They differed 
widely, it is true, as to the manner of the soul's 
existence, but all agreed as to the fact of that 
existence. How can we account for the exist- 
ence of this universal belief, except on the hy- 
pothesis of the existence of the fact so univer- 
sally believed? There is a secret voice whis- 
pering in all our souls that we are immortal. 
We are all conscious of " a pleasing hope, a 



MOTIVE POWER OE THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 135 

fond desire, a longing after immortality." The 
Scriptures recognize and endorse these deep 
longings and loft} 7 aspirations of our inmost 
being. 

Take into simple consideration the wondrous 
fact that men are immortal. It may be that 
God himself — we speak it reverently — cannot, 
certain it is that He will not, annihilate a moral 
being. How glorious, and yet how terrible, is 
the truth that we can never die!— that the 
soul is forever beyond the reach of death. Its 
cold hand cannot touch it. It smiles at the 
assassin's dagger, defies the marksman's bul- 
let, and amid the crash of worlds, lives on 
and on, immortal as its Divine author! Who 
can estimate the value of a human soul? Ten 
thousand worlds could not compensate for its 
loss. Surely they that win it are wise. They 
shall indeed " shine as the brightness of the 
firmament, and they that turn many to right- 
eousness as the stars for ever and ever " (Dan. 
12 : 3). Take these considerations into your 
thoughts when you approach a man to talk 
to him about becoming a Christian. 

Again, think of what Christ has done for 
the soul, that you may have a higher concep* 



1 3 6 WORDS IX SEA SOX. 

tion of its* worth. The attainment of great 
ends necessitates the use of great means. The 
wise business man will put no more capita! 
f into any given enterprise than is requisite for 
the accomplishment of the end he has in view. 
The able general will not expose to death the 
lives of ten thousand men if with five thou- 
sand he knows he can overcome the enemy. 
Nature puts forth no more energy than the 
case requires. She does not expend in pro- 
ducing a blade of grass the forces necessary 
for the production of an oak. We may be 
sure that God would not employ for the sal- 
vation of the soul any means not absolutely 
necessary to that end. He never miscalcu- 
lates. If any being of less merit could have 
saved man, Christ would not have died. The 
resources of the universe were at God's com- 
mand. The cattle on a thousand hills, the 
gold and the silver, are His : all could not pur- 
chase a sinsfle soul. The wealth of heaven 
was subject to His will. But all the angels, 
in their matchless splendor and peerless glory, 
were not able to redeem a lost child of Adam. 
We are appalled ; our reason staggers ; we 
cannot compute such values ; we have no 



MOTIVE POWER OF THE CHRIST! A N LIFE. 137 

formula by which to discover this unknown 
quantity— the value of a soul. God knows it. 
Christ gave Himself. Only the blood of 
Him who knew no sin, the blood of the Son 
of God, was able to make that purchase. The 
soul, though fallen, is glorious in its ruins. 
The image of God, though defaced, is not 
entirely effaced. Standing beneath the cross 
021 which dies the Son of God, we learn as 
nowhere else the value of the soul. Michael 
Angelo, passing along the narrow street, be- 
held an angel in a block of marble which lay 
half imbedded in the mire; but, in the most 
abject child of Adam, God sees a " pearl of 
great price," — a price so unspeakably great 
that to redeem it He gave His only begotten 
Son. What a mighty motive in Christian 
labor is the unspeakable value of a human soul ! 
II. Only as a man becomes a Christian 
does he attain the highest possibility of man- 
hood. Until then, no man truly lives. He 
only exists. Mere existence is only the ani- 
mal side of true living. True living^is the 
. Godlike side of being. To live is more than 
to be. " Ye will not come unto me, that ye 
might have life " (John 5 :4o), said Christ. It 



I 38 WORDS IN SEA SOX. 

is said of the Prodigal Son : " When he came 
to himself, he said, ... I will arise and 
go to my father." He had not been himself; 
he had not known his true self until then. 
He had been beside himself He had lived 
only in the lower story of his higher nature. 
No man comes to his true self till he comes 
to his heavenly Father. Christ is the com- 
plement of every man. Mere earthly good 
cannot satisfy the human soul. It is our high- 
est glory that nothing short of God Himself 
can satisfy the longings and aspirations of our 
deepest nature. A living man must have a 
living, loving, personal God. As the wise 
men of the East could not rest till they were 
against the star, and the star itself stood not 
still till it came over the place where the Re- 
deemer lay, so the heart cannot rest until it 
reposes on Christ. 

The very derivation of the word religion, 
according to some authorities, is to bind back 
again. Sin came into the world and separated 
man from God ; Christ came to lead the 
wandering heart and its wealth of affections 
back to the Father's home and the Father's 
heart. A tribe of Indians, according to the 



MOTIVE POWER OP THE CHRTSTIAN LIFE. 139 

tradition, fled before the prairie fires. They 
came to a broad river, and having crossed it, 
the aged chief struck his staff into the ground 
upon the hill-side be) r ond ? and cried, u A-la- 
ba-ma ! " (Here we rest.) He was mistaken. 
Hostile tribes followed them. Seeking a 
home, the aged chief and- his followers found 
a grave. Men seek for rest in earthly good. 
True rest cannot be found until men obey the 
voice of Him who said, "Come unto Me"; 
until we pillow our heads on the bosom of 
Christ, we can never find our true " A-la-ba- 
ma." It has been said that if you give a man 
half of the world, he will cry out for the re- 
maining half. More truly has it been said, 
that if you give him both halves, he will be 
still dissatisfied. The heart, if its inarticulate 
longings be rightly interpreted, voices its 
deepest yearning in a cry after God. Men 
strive to silence this cry ; they surfeit the 
body and starve the soul, still it utters its 
voice and reaches out in despair for something 
which earth cannot give. Augustine uttered 
a glorious truth when he said, " Thou, O 
God, hast made us for Thyself, and there is no 
repose but with Thee." And when men have 



1 40 WORD S IN SEA SON. 

found repose in God they can say with the 
same warm-hearted writer, " Too late I loved 
Thee, O Thou Beauty of ancient days, yet 
ever new ! too late I loved Thee ! " Ever, 
ever must it be that the soul shall be dwarfed, 
unsymmetrical, incomplete, until by a living 
faith it is united to Christ, its complement, 
its righteousness, its redemption, its all. What 
an inspiring motive we have in this considera- 
tion to seek this Christ for ourselves, and to 
lead others to Him ! 

III. The fear of God is another motive. By 
fear I do not mean a mere reverential awe, 
but use the word in its simple sense of wrath 
impending, and danger to be averted. The 
present time especially needs the enforcement 
of this truth. It is doubtless true that at some 
periods in the history of the Church undue 
prominence was given to the severer attri- 
butes of God^ It is equally true that now in 
many pulpits undue prominence is given to 
the opposite attributes. The idea of the 
French, as expressed in the phrase, u Le bon 
Dieu" is too prevalent. According to this 
conception, God is believed to be pleasantly 
near when we need Him, and to be conveni- 



MOTIVE POWER OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, j^i 

ently absent when we do not want Him. 
Much of the maudlin sympathy with crime, 
and silly sentimentality toward criminals, find 
their origin in these mistaken notions of God. 
We must not forget that God is just, and that 
even in the grandest display of His love, the 
Cross of Calvary, He has given us an equally 
grand display of His justice. We are not 
called upon to apologize for God. We are 
simply to present Him as He has revealed 
Himself in His Word. Now, that Word does 
as certainly speak of the duty of fearing Him 
as it does of loving Him. It does teach us 
that there is something more to be dreaded 
than physical death. Christ knew God, and 
He also knew man, and He says: 

" Fear not them which kill the body, but are 
not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him 
which is able to destroy both soul and body 
in hell." (Matt. 10 : 28.) 

Religion addresses the whole man. Fear is 
a part of the best manhood. Christ appeals to 
fear, in the sense in which we use the term, as 
a motive in religion. The human heart has 
many doors. Over one is written "Hope;" 
over another k ' Reason ;" over another " Faith ;" 



142 



WORDS IN SEASON. 



over another "Love;" and over another 
" Fear." Christ knocks at every door. One 
man opens to one knock, another to another. 
u Any means to save some." Christ was the 
perfect preacher. While He was the most lov- 
ing, He was also the most severe preacher the 
world has ever had. No such terrible " woes " 
ever fell from human lips as were uttered by 
Christ. They were all the more terrible be- 
cause baptized in His tears. Even the " ser- 
mon on the mount" is inflexible in its justice, 
and awful in its solemnity. No part of Scrip- 
ture is more startling, to an impure mind, than 
that sermon. Surely Christ's view of God, 
and our relations to Him, is the true view. 
The apostles followed the example of Christ. 
Paul wished to be "accursed from Christ" 
for the sake of his brethren. Even John, the 
apostle of love, warns and exhorts. You must 
eliminate large portions of the teaching of 
Christ and the apostles, if you will take out 
of the Bible these constant appeals to fear. 
You will not accuse me of harshness if I urge 
you to imitate, in this respect, the example of 
the loving Saviour. I was trained under good 
old Scotch preaching, and my religious life had 



MOTIVE POWER OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. ^3 

its origin, as I believe that of the majority of 
Christians has, under the influence of fear. 
This teaching, in its proper proportions, I still 
believe to be in harmony with the Word of 
God. But, although originating in fear, our 
religious lives have outgrown it. It has done 
its work. The law was a school-master to 
bring us to Christ. The " law ' 5 and the 
u Gospel " do not contradict each other. To 
preach either properly, is to preach the other 
also. So you step out of the region of fear 
into that of love. Startled b} 7 L-ar, driven by 
the " dogs of the law,'' you have taken refuge 
in Christ. He has become righteousness and 
redemption. You see such beauty in Him 
that you cannot help loving Him. Fear is a 
low motive, we grant. Burns was right when 
he said, " The fear of hell is the hangman's 
whip." Better have that fear, however, than 
to sleep on in sin. The mature Christian is 
not conscious of the fear of hell as a motive ; 
indeed, he is not conscious of the glory of 
heaven as a motive. He has outgrown both. 
Christ is to him the " King in His beauty." 
He loves Jesus for what He is, apart from 
what He does. That is right. We all ought 



144 



WORDS IN SEA SOX. 



to strive for this state of mind and heart. It is 
heaven to be like Christ and to be with Him ; 
it is hell to be sinful and to be separated from 
Him. The school-boy who wishes to speak 
correctly must fear to violate the rules of 
grammar; after a time these rules become in- 
corporated into his intellectual nature, and in- 
tuitively he speaks correctly. Out of the fear 
of rules he has passed into the love of correct 
speech. The man who has climbed a tree 
can afford to kick away the ladder; but the 
ladder, nevertheless, served a very useful pur- 
pose. So with fear. It is not the end in re- 
ligion, it is only the means' to that end. Let 
us not strive to be wiser than Christ. He was 
the best teacher of His own religion. He 
warned earnestly because He loved tenderly. 
In our desire to exhibit the love of God in 
Christ, let us not hesitate to present also, in 
its proper place and proportion, this element 
of fear. 

IV. I bring you as a final thought that 
which is suggested by the Apostle's words : 
" The love of Christ constraineth us " (2 Cor. 
5 : 14). This motive gave to the world Peter 
and Paul, John and James, Luther and Bun- 



MOTIVE POWER OF THE CHRISTIAX LIFE. 



145 



van, Wesley and Whitefield. Among all the 
motives to the Christian life/there is none so 
powerful as this. Under its inspiration the 
redeemed soul rejoices amid the flames, and 
goes up to the glory of its reward. The 
Christian must have in him the love of Christ. 
He must live with Christ, walk with Him, 
and talk with Him. He must know Him by 
a personal experience, and an appropriating* 
faith. It will not do for him to hold Chris- 
tianity as a theory ; he must feel it in his deep- 
est heart, and illustrate its spirit even in his 
unconscious acts. The best evidence of Chris- 
tianity is Christianity. It simply asks the 
opportunity to reveal itself. If displayed in 
all the energy of its divine self-assertion, it 
needs no other evidence. If Christians are 
*' living epistles/ 5 the glory of Christ will be 
seen, and the attractive power of His cross 
will be felt 

There is no magnetism so mighty as the at- 
tractive power of an uplifted Christ. His love 
should glow in the believer's face, flash in the 
glance of his eyes, and flow out in the forms 
of his daily speech. Men will then take 
knowledge of Christians that they have bean 

10 



146 WORDS IN SEASON. 

with Jesus, and the irresistible eloquence of a 
pure and beautiful life will emphasize the 
words they utter. When men so live with 
Christ, they become the natural channels of 
communicating His love to other hearts. 
Above all personal considerations, above all 
denominational divisions, let the love of Christ 
possess our whole being, and then can we 
with joy and success point sinners to Jesus. 
Let this be the master-motive. Let this be 
the crowning impulse of the heart. Let all* I 
have said condense itself into this, and we 
shall see glorious results from the efforts put 
forth. And may the Spirit of God come down 
sweetly and mightily into our hearts, and 
the work of the Lord abundantly prosper in 
our hands 1 



THE END. 



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